Etymograph

English

space

Space comes from Middle English space, from Anglo-Norman space, from Latin spatium, from PIE *(s)peh₂- ‘to stretch’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)peh₂-‘to stretch’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspatium‘space’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400espace‘space’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400space
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500space
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1596space

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)peh₂-‘to stretch’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspatium‘space’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400espace‘space’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400space
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500space
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1596space

Earliest quotation: 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene: “But she as Fayes are wont, in priuie place…”

The story

Partially displaced native Old English rum, whence Modern English room.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)peh₂- ‘to stretch, to pull’

splay

through Latin spatium ‘space, room, extent’

spatial, spat, 2 more

Today it means

noun The distance between objects.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)peh₂- / space

Shirt and support for this word