Etymograph

English

angust

Angust comes from Latin angustus ‘narrow, close, contracted, constricted,…’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂enǵʰ-1‘narrow, tight’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEangustus2‘narrow, close, contracted, constricted, confined, small, not spacious’
  3. Englishtodayangust2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin angustus
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English angust

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂enǵʰ-Wiktionary, Latin angustus‘narrow, tight’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEangustusWiktionary, English angust‘narrow, close, contracted, constricted, confined, small, not spacious’
  3. EnglishtodayangustWiktionary, English angust

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ- ‘narrow, tight’

anxiety, angry, anger, anxious, eng, angrily, angst, angina, 11 more

through Latin angustus ‘narrow, close, contracted, constricted,…’

anguish, 3 more

Today it means

adj Narrow; strait; contracted; not spacious.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “angust”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin angustus. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ- / angust

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