Etymograph

English

bottom

Bottom comes from Old English botm ‘bottom, foundation’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰudʰmḗn1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*butmaz1‘bottom’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*butm1reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150botm1‘bottom’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500botme1
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1591bottom1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English bottom
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1590–1591, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona: “As you vnwinde her loue from him, / Lest…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰudʰmḗnWiktionary, English bottomreconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*butmazWiktionary, English bottom‘bottom’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*butmWiktionary, English bottomreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150botmWiktionary, English bottom‘bottom’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500botmeWiktionary, English bottom
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1591bottomWiktionary, English bottom. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1590–1591, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona: “As you vnwinde her loue from him, / Lest…”

first attested The noun sense “posterior of a person” is first attested in 1794; the verb sense “to reach the bottom of” is first attested in 1808 (as stated in Wiktionary’s etymology)

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with bottom, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- ‘to sink in’

  • deep ← dep ← dēop ← *deup ← *deupaz
  • depth ← depthe ← *dīepþ ← *diupiþō ← *deupaz
  • dumb ← *dumbaz
  • dave ← deven ← dēafian ← dēaf ← *daub
  • fundamental ← foundamental ← fundāmentālis ← fundāmentum ← fundō
  • dip ← dippen ← dyppan ← *duppjan ← *dupjaną
  • deaf ← def ← *daub ← *daubaz
  • dove ← douve ← *dūfe ← *dūbā ← *dūbǭ
  • dub ← dubben ← dubbian ← adober ← *dubbōn
  • butte ← but ← but ← but ← *but
  • typhus ← τῦφος ← τύφω
  • fonds ← funz ← fundus ← *fundos ← *bʰundʰós

47 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun The lowest part of anything.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “bottom”. 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 *bʰudʰmḗn / bottom