Etymograph

English

colliculus

Colliculus comes from Latin colliculus ‘small hill, hillock, knoll’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kelH- ‘to rise’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kelH-1‘to rise’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kl̥Hnís1‘hill’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kolnis1reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcollis2‘hill’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcolliculus2‘small hill, hillock, knoll’diminutive of collis
  6. Englishtodaycolliculus2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin collis
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English colliculus

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kelH-Wiktionary, Latin collis‘to rise’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kl̥HnísWiktionary, Latin collis‘hill’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kolnisWiktionary, Latin collisreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcollisWiktionary, English colliculus‘hill’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcolliculusWiktionary, English colliculus‘small hill, hillock, knoll’diminutive of collis
  6. EnglishtodaycolliculusWiktionary, English colliculus

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *kelH- ‘to rise’

excellent, colonel, excellence, column, hale, excellency, culmination, excelsior, holm, culminate, colonnade, columella, 7 more

through Proto-Indo-European *kl̥Hnís ‘hill’

hill

Today it means

noun A small elevation.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “colliculus”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin collis. 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 *kelH- / colliculus

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