English
score
Score comes from Old English scoru ‘notch’, from Proto-Germanic *skurō ‘incision’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to cut off, sever’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)ker-‘to cut off’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skurō‘incision’reconstructed
- Old Norsec. 800–1350skor‘a score’
- Old Englishc. 450–1150scoru‘notch’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500score
- Englishearliest quotation 1591score
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)ker-‘to cut off’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skurō‘incision’reconstructed
- Old Norsec. 800–1350skor‘a score’
- Old Englishc. 450–1150scoru‘notch’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500score
- Englishearliest quotation 1591score
Earliest quotation: 1591, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “Whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but…”
The story
For the sense “twenty”: The mark on a tally made by drovers for every twenty beasts passing through a tollgate.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to cut off, sever’
across, card, short, cross, cancer, share, shirt, circle, circuit, screen, crucial, curve, circus, circulation, skirt, carnival, curb, cancellation, shrine, circa, scrutiny, scare, scar, shear, incarceration, crest, carnage, raffle, circulate, carcinoma, crux, shred, shard, coronary, carnal, cirque, riddance, corona, shrewd, ruck, 119 more
Today it means
noun The total number of goals, points, runs, etc. earned by a participant in a game.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- / score