English
chez
Chez comes from French chez ‘to, at, in or into the place of’, and goes back to Latin casa ‘house’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcasa1‘house’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400chies1
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600chez1
- Frenchc. 1600–presentchez2‘to, at, in or into the place of’
- Englishearliest quotation 2008chez2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, French chez
- 2 Wiktionary, English chez
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2008, Lisa Forest, Mind the gap: Empty house, empty nest, empty fridge: “Even if I say so myself, Christmas chez the…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcasaWiktionary, French chez‘house’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400chiesWiktionary, French chez
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600chezWiktionary, French chez
- Frenchc. 1600–presentchezWiktionary, English chez‘to, at, in or into the place of’
- Englishearliest quotation 2008chezWiktionary, English chez. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2008, Lisa Forest, Mind the gap: Empty house, empty nest, empty fridge: “Even if I say so myself, Christmas chez the…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *kat- ‘to link or weave together’
through Latin casa ‘house’
Today it means
prep At the home of.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “chez”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for French chez. 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 / Latin casa / chez