Etymograph

English

auditor

Auditor comes from Latin audītor ‘hearer, auditor’, from audiō ‘hear, listen’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-1‘to do’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*awizdiō1‘to hear’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEaudiō1‘hear, listen’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEaudītor2‘hearer, auditor’
  5. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400auditour2
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1650auditor2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin auditor
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English auditor
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […]: “There is another of better notice, and whispered through…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-Wiktionary, Latin auditor‘to do’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*awizdiōWiktionary, Latin auditor‘to hear’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEaudiōWiktionary, Latin auditor‘hear, listen’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEaudītorWiktionary, English auditor‘hearer, auditor’
  5. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400auditourWiktionary, English auditor
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1650auditorWiktionary, English auditor. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […]: “There is another of better notice, and whispered through…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do’

do, fact, deal, hot, fair, defense, fan, fashion, feature, mid, benefit, theme, defence, ethnic, sufficient, treasury, custom, treasure, ethical, thesis, aesthetic, defendant, feast, synthetic, theology, doom, tick, deed, atheist, ethic, atheism, dis, demi, deem, spade, thematic, ethos, feral, fanatic, familial, 128 more

through Latin audiō ‘hear, listen’

audience, obey, audible, 11 more

Today it means

noun One who audits bookkeeping accounts.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “auditor”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin auditor. 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 *dʰeh₁- / auditor

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