English

class

Class comes from Latin classis ‘a class or division of the people, assembly of…’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- ‘to call, shout’.

Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kelh₁-¹‘to call’reconstructed
Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEclassis¹‘a class or division of the people’
Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600classe¹
Englishearliest quotation 1790class¹

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

¹ Wiktionary, English class
Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1790, Edward Tatham: “the genus or family under which it classes”.

Lineage

Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kelh₁-1Wiktionary, English class‘to call’reconstructed
Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEclassis1Wiktionary, English class‘a class or division of the people’
Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600classe1Wiktionary, English class
Englishearliest quotation 1790class1Wiktionary, English class. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1790, Edward Tatham: “the genus or family under which it classes”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with class, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- ‘to call, shout’

low ← lowen ← hlōwan ← *hlōaną
hell ← hellen ← hëllen ← hëllan ← *hellaną
clear ← clere ← cler ← cler ← clarus
claim ← claimen ← clamer ← clāmō
calendar ← kalender ← calendier ← calendarium ← kalendae
haul ← hālen ← haler ← *halōn
reconciliation ← reconciliacioun ← reconciliaciun
declare ← declaren ← declarer ← dēclārō ← clārō
reconcile ← reconciliō ← conciliō ← concilium ← calō
claire ← clair ← cler ← cler ← clārus
clarity ← claritee ← clarté ← clāritās ← clārus
clarification ← clārificātiō ← clārificō ← clārus ← *klāros

51 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun A group, collection, category or set sharing characteristics or attributes.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “class”. 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 *kelh₁- / class