Etymograph

English

ultraviolet

Ultraviolet comes from Old French violette ‘violet’, and goes back to Latin viola.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEviola‘violet, especially Viola odorata’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400violette‘violet’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500violet
  4. English1500–presentsame form
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2004ultraviolet

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEviola‘violet, especially Viola odorata’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400violette‘violet’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500violet
  4. English1500–presentsame form
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2004ultraviolet

Earliest quotation: 2004, Barton Zwiebach, A First Course in String Theory: “A one-loop Feynman graph that represents a virtual process.…”

A compound of ultra- ‘beyond’ + violet ‘violet’

Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- ‘to grow, nourish’

Proto-Indo-European *h₂ol-

Latin ūls ‘beyond’

Latin ultrā ‘beyond’

English ultra-

Latin viola

Old French violette

Middle English violet

English violet

Linked words

through Latin viola ‘violet, especially Viola odorata’

viola, 3 more

Today it means

adj Of electromagnetic radiation beyond (higher in frequency than) light visible to the human eye; radiation with wavelengths from 380 to 10 nanometres.

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

Etymograph / Latin viola / ultraviolet

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