English
cavea
Cavea comes from Latin cavea ‘hollow, cavity’, and goes back to Proto-Italic *kawos.
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kawos1reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcavus1‘hollow’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CE*caveus1reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcavea2‘hollow, cavity’
- Englishearliest quotation 1895cavea2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin cavea
- 2 Wiktionary, English cavea
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1895, The Annual of the British School at Athe: “Vitruvius, in writing that colonnades are desirable above theatres,…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kawosWiktionary, Latin caveareconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcavusWiktionary, Latin cavea‘hollow’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CE*caveusWiktionary, Latin caveareconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcaveaWiktionary, English cavea‘hollow, cavity’
- Englishearliest quotation 1895caveaWiktionary, English cavea. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1895, The Annual of the British School at Athe: “Vitruvius, in writing that colonnades are desirable above theatres,…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ḱewh₁- ‘to swell’
church, kirk, hound, cyst, cumulus, cajole, 37 more
through Proto-Italic *kawos
through Latin cavus ‘hollow’
excavation, cavity, concave, cavern, excavate, cavil, 13 more
through Latin *caveus
through Latin cavea ‘hollow, cavity’
Today it means
noun The seating section of a Greek or Roman theatre or amphitheatre.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “cavea”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin cavea. 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-Italic *kawos / cavea