Etymograph

English

vitreous

Vitreous comes from Latin vitreus ‘glassy, transparent’, and goes back to vitrum.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitrum‘glass’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitreus‘glassy, transparent’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600vitreux
  4. Englishearliest quotation 2021vitreous

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitrum‘glass’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitreus‘glassy, transparent’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600vitreux
  4. Englishearliest quotation 2021vitreous

Earliest quotation: 2021, Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness: “Pressing his fingertips against the rippled, vitreous surface, he…”

The story

The terms vitreous (positive) and resinous (negative) electricity were coined in 1733 by Charles François de Cisternay du Fay, who studied the different behaviour of glass and resin when rubbed with silk and fur, respectively.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *wed- ‘water’

water, wet, wash, und, abundance, vodka, abundant, hydro, surround, redundant, otter, hydrate, hydride, aldehyde, vedra, inundate, undine, 44 more

through Latin vitrum ‘glass’

vitriol, 13 more

Today it means

adj Of or resembling glass; glassy.

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

Etymograph / Latin vitrum / vitreous

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