English
void
Void comes from Middle English voide ‘drink taken before leaving or before bed’, from Old French vuit ‘empty’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-‘to be/become empty’root as named
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wakowosreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvacuus‘empty, vacant, unoccupied’next step skipped: Vulgar Latin vocāre
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*vocitum‘empty’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400vuit‘empty’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500voide‘drink taken before leaving or before bed’
- Englishearliest quotation 1485void
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-‘to be/become empty’root as named
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wakowosreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvacuus‘empty, vacant, unoccupied’next step skipped: Vulgar Latin vocāre
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*vocitum‘empty’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400vuit‘empty’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500voide‘drink taken before leaving or before bed’
- Englishearliest quotation 1485void
Earliest quotation: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, xvj: “BY than come in to the feld kynge Ban…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘to be/become empty’
want, various, waste, variety, vast, vacation, vary, variable, vacant, vain, vanity, vanish, vacate, waning, wane, varicella, evanescent, 26 more
through Latin vacuus ‘empty, vacant, unoccupied’
Today it means
adj Containing nothing; empty; not occupied or filled.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- / void