Etymograph

English

calque

Calque comes from French calquer ‘to copy, trace’, from Italian calcare ‘to stomp, to tread’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *klHk(ᵂ)-(n)-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*klHk(ᵂ)-(n)-1ᵂuncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcalx2‘heel’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcalcō3as calcāre‘to tread’
  4. Italianc. 1300–presentcalcare3‘to stomp, to tread’
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentcalquer3‘to copy, trace’
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentcalque3literally ‘copy, tracing’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 2005calque3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin calx
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin calco
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English calque
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2005, William Safire, Kifaya!: “David S. Powers, professor of Islamic history and law…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*klHk(ᵂ)-(n)-Wiktionary, Latin calxᵂuncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcalxWiktionary, Latin calco‘heel’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcalcōWiktionary, English calqueas calcāre‘to tread’
  4. Italianc. 1300–presentcalcareWiktionary, English calque‘to stomp, to tread’
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentcalquerWiktionary, English calque‘to copy, trace’
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentcalqueWiktionary, English calqueliterally ‘copy, tracing’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 2005calqueWiktionary, English calque. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2005, William Safire, Kifaya!: “David S. Powers, professor of Islamic history and law…”

The story

From French calque (“calque”, literally “copy, tracing”), from calquer (‘to copy, trace’) (whence also calk), itself borrowed from Italian calcare, from Latin calcāre (‘to tread’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Latin calx ‘heel’

chalk, calcium, calculus, causeway, recalcitrant, calcareous, calcite, caulk, calzone, 32 more

through Latin calcō ‘to tread’

counterpoint, quilt, inculcate, 9 more

Today it means

noun A word or phrase in a language formed by word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word in another language.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “calque”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin calx, Latin calco. 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 *klHk(ᵂ)-(n)- / calque

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