Etymograph

English

subpoena

Subpoena comes from Middle English sub pena ‘writ requiring defendant to appear in the…’, from Ancient Greek ποινή ‘blood money, wergeld’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷey- ‘to pay’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷey-‘to pay’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷoynéh₂‘payment’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*kʷoinā́reconstructed
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEποινήpoinḗ‘blood money, wergeld’
  5. Medieval Latinmodernpoena
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sub pena‘writ requiring defendant to appear in the Court of Chancery to answer a plaintiff’s claim…’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1612subpoena

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷey-‘to pay’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷoynéh₂‘payment’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*kʷoinā́reconstructed
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEποινήpoinḗ‘blood money, wergeld’
  5. Medieval Latinmodernpoena
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sub pena‘writ requiring defendant to appear in the Court of Chancery to answer a plaintiff’s claim…’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1612subpoena

Earliest quotation: 1612, Thomas Overburye i.e. Thomas Overbury, London: […] [Edward Griffin] for Lawrence Lisle: “Nothing vnder a Sub-pœna can dravv him to London,…”

The story

The noun sense is derived from Late Middle English sub pena (‘writ requiring defendant to appear in the Court of Chancery to answer a plaintiff’s claim or to be punished; writ requiring witness to appear in court’), from Latin sub (‘under’) + poena (‘penalty, punishment’), from the opening words of the writ.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *kʷey- ‘to pay’

painful, poetry, poem, poet, titanium, painless, whey, onomatopoeia, 20 more

through Ancient Greek ποινή ‘blood money, wergeld’

pain, punishment, pine, penalty, punish, punitive, impunity, penal, 4 more

Today it means

noun A writ (“written order”) requiring someone to appear in court, or at a deposition or some other legal proceeding, as a witness to give testimony (a subpoena ad testificandum) or to produce evidence (subpoena duces tecum), in default of which the person may be punished.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kʷey- / subpoena

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