Etymograph

English

stratus

Stratus comes from Latin stratus ‘spread or stretched out’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sterh₃-‘to spread, extend, stretch out’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*str̥h₃tós‘stretched, spread’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*strātosreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstratus‘spread or stretched out’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1803same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sterh₃-‘to spread, extend, stretch out’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*str̥h₃tós‘stretched, spread’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*strātosreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstratus‘spread or stretched out’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1803same form

Earliest quotation: 1803, Luke Howard, Suspension: “[page 99] Stratus. […] A widely extended, continuous, horizontal…”

The story

Coined by the British chemist and amateur meteorologist Luke Howard (1772–1864): see the 1803 quotation.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- ‘to spread, extend, stretch out’

straw, strand, sternum, prostrate, stroma, substratum, 10 more

through Latin stratus ‘spread or stretched out’

street, 2 more

Today it means

noun A principal, low-level cloud type in the form of a gray layer with a rather uniform base, usually not associated with precipitation, and capable of producing corona phenomena and a weak, uniform luminance.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- / stratus

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