English
clause
Clause comes from Latin clausus ‘closed, inaccessible’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂w- ‘key, hook, nail’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kleh₂w-1‘key, hook, nail’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*klaudō1‘to close’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEclaudō2as claudere, past participle‘to shut, close’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEclausus2‘closed, inaccessible’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500clausa2
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400clause2
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500clause2‘sentence, clause’
- Englishearliest quotation 1951clause2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin claudo
- 2 Wiktionary, English clause
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1951, Notes and News: North Fife Line, Scotland: “Mr. Waller adds that when the railway was authorised…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kleh₂w-Wiktionary, Latin claudo‘key, hook, nail’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*klaudōWiktionary, Latin claudo‘to close’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEclaudōWiktionary, English clauseas claudere, past participle‘to shut, close’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEclaususWiktionary, English clause‘closed, inaccessible’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500clausaWiktionary, English clause
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400clauseWiktionary, English clause
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500clauseWiktionary, English clause‘sentence, clause’
- Englishearliest quotation 1951clauseWiktionary, English clause. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1951, Notes and News: North Fife Line, Scotland: “Mr. Waller adds that when the railway was authorised…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂w- ‘key, hook, nail’
include, cataract, conclave, subclavian, 28 more
through Proto-Italic *klaudō ‘to close’
through Latin claudō ‘to shut, close’
exclusive, conclusion, closure, conclude, inclusion, closet, inclusive, exclude, disclose, preclude, sluice, cloister, occlusion, enclose, recluse, 28 more
through Latin clausus ‘closed, inaccessible’
Today it means
noun A group of words that contains a subject and a verb; it may be part of a sentence or may constitute the whole sentence, depending on the syntax in each instance.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “clause”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin claudo. 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 *kleh₂w- / clause