Etymograph

English

comfort

Comfort comes from Middle English comfort, from Old French cunfort, from the stem of Late Latin confortō ‘to strengthen’ (con- + fortis).

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfortis1‘strong’
  2. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEconfortō2‘to strengthen greatly’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400cunfort2
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500comfort2‘encouragement’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1684comfort2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin conforto
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English comfort
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1684, chapter III, Our Engliſh Jamaican Hero: “But all was in vain: For having ranged up…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfortisWiktionary, Latin conforto‘strong’
  2. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEconfortōWiktionary, English comfort‘to strengthen greatly’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400cunfortWiktionary, English comfort
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500comfortWiktionary, English comfort‘encouragement’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1684comfortWiktionary, English comfort. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1684, chapter III, Our Engliſh Jamaican Hero: “But all was in vain: For having ranged up…”

The story

It replaced Old English frofor, Middle English frovre.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- ‘to bind fast’

  • dry ← drye ← drȳġe ← *drūgī ← *drūgiz

through Old Latin forctis

  • enforce ← enforcen ← enforcier ← infortiāre ← fortis

through Latin fortis ‘strong, powerful’

20 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of comfort

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰerǵʰ-‘to rise, high, hill’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*forktis‘strong, powerful’reconstructed
  3. Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEforctis
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfortis‘strong’
  5. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEconfortō‘to strengthen greatly’
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400conforter‘to comfort’
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500comforten‘to comfort’
  8. Englishtodaycomfort

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Today it means

noun Contentment, ease.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “comfort”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin conforto. 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 fortis / comfort