English
caducous
Caducous comes from Latin cadūcus ‘falling’, from cadō ‘to fall’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱad-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱad-1‘to fall’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱádeti1reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kadō1‘to fall, sink’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcadō1‘to fall’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcadūcus2‘falling’
- Englishearliest quotation 1992caducous2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin caducus
- 2 Wiktionary, English caducous
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1992, Rudolf Mathias Schuster, Chicago: “The Jubulaceae have a leaf whose lobule, usually transformed…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱad-Wiktionary, Latin caducus‘to fall’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱádetiWiktionary, Latin caducusreconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kadōWiktionary, Latin caducus‘to fall, sink’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcadōWiktionary, Latin caducus‘to fall’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcadūcusWiktionary, English caducous‘falling’
- Englishearliest quotation 1992caducousWiktionary, English caducous. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1992, Rudolf Mathias Schuster, Chicago: “The Jubulaceae have a leaf whose lobule, usually transformed…”
Linked words
through Latin cadō ‘to fall’
case, chance, accident, incident, occasion, cheat, incidence, decay, casualty, coincide, occidental, cadence, recidivism, decadent, deciduous, cadaver, occident, 14 more
Today it means
adj Of a part of an organism, disappearing in the normal course of development.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “caducous”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin caducus. 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 *ḱad- / caducous