Etymograph

English

room

Room comes from Middle English roum ‘room, space’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(H)rewH- ‘to root’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)rewH-‘to root’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*rūmąreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*rūmreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150rūm‘room’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500roum‘room’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1526room

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)rewH-‘to root’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*rūmąreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*rūmreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150rūm‘room’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500roum‘room’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1526room

Earliest quotation: 1526, [William Tyndale, The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible): “Thou lorde whiche knowest the hertes of all men,…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *Hrew- ‘to tear out, open’

rude, roster, erudite, erudition, 4 more

Another origin of room

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150rūme‘widely, spaciously, roomily, far and wide, so as to extend over a wide space, liberally’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500rome
  3. Englishtodayroom

Today it means

noun An opportunity or scope (to do something).

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(H)rewH- / room

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