Etymograph

English

severe

Severe comes, via Middle French, from Latin sevērus ‘severe, serious’, whose deeper origin is disputed.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsevērus‘severe, serious, strict’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1934severe

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsevērus‘severe, serious, strict’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1934severe

Earliest quotation: 1934, Your Germs and Mine: “In the severer cases of hookworm the patient sometimes…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *seǵʰ- ‘to hold’

school, sketch, scholar, hector, hectic, epoch, scholastic, schema, shul, 24 more

through Latin severus ‘severe, serious, grave in demeanor’

perseverance, 6 more

Today it means

adj Very bad or intense.

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

Etymograph / Latin sevērus / severe

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