Etymograph

English

cahier

Cahier comes from French cahier ‘notebook, exercise book’, from Latin quaternus ‘four each’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷetwóres1‘four’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEquater1‘four times’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEquaternus2‘four each’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400quaer2
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentcahier3‘notebook, exercise book’
  6. Englishtodaycahier3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin quaternus
  2. 2 Wiktionary, French cahier
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English cahier

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷetwóresWiktionary, Latin quaternus‘four’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEquaterWiktionary, Latin quaternus‘four times’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEquaternusWiktionary, French cahier‘four each’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400quaerWiktionary, French cahier
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentcahierWiktionary, English cahier‘notebook, exercise book’
  6. EnglishtodaycahierWiktionary, English cahier

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres ‘four’

fourth, quarry, cater, quatre, farthing, cuatro, tetrad, quatrain, ferd, 17 more

through Latin quaternus ‘four each’

kern, quire, carillon, 4 more

Today it means

noun A roll of sheets of paper put loosely together, especially one of the successive portions of a work printed in numbers.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “cahier”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin quaternus, French cahier. 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 *kʷetwóres / cahier

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