English
universe
Universe comes from Middle English universe, from Old French univers ‘the whole world’, from Latin ūniversus ‘whole’, literally ‘turned into one’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEūniversus‘whole, entire’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400univers‘the whole world’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500universe‘the universe’
- Englishearliest quotation 1669universe
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEūniversus‘whole, entire’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400univers‘the whole world’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500universe‘the universe’
- Englishearliest quotation 1669universe
Earliest quotation: 1669, John Nievhoff, London: John Macock: “Under our new World may alſo be compriſed thoſe…”
Proto-Indo-European *wert- ‘to turn’
…
Latin vertō ‘to turn around’
Latin versus ‘a line in writing’
Old English fers ‘verse’
Middle English vers ‘a line in a poem’
English verse
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *wert- ‘to turn, to rotate, spin’
word, worth, weird, version, ridiculous, conversation, divorce, vertical, diversity, vortex, advertisement, ridicule, diverse, convertible, versatile, adverse, advert, revert, pervert, adversity, divert, vertex, vertigo, diversification, avert, inverse, transverse, vertebrate, derision, introvert, subvert, vert, perverse, averse, deride, wurst, derisive, perversity, 67 more
through Latin versus ‘turned, changed, having been turned’
Today it means
name The sum of everything that exists in the cosmos.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin ūniversus / universe