causecause

Cause comes from Old French cause ‘a cause, a thing’, and goes back to Latin causa.

1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcausa¹‘reason’
2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400cause¹‘a cause’
3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cause¹
4. Englishearliest quotation 1590cause¹

1. ¹ Wiktionary, English cause
2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto IX: “He, to shifte their curious request, / Gan causen…”.