Etymograph

English

congeries

Congeries comes from Latin congeriēs ‘a heap, mass, pile’, from gerō ‘carry’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂eǵ-1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*gezō1‘to carry, bear’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgerō1‘carry’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcongerō2‘to carry together, heap’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcongeriēs2‘a heap, mass, pile’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1876congeries2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin congero
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English congeries
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1876, James Clerk Maxwell, On Action at a Distance: “And when the Newtonian philosophy gained ground in Europe,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂eǵ-Wiktionary, Latin congeroreconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*gezōWiktionary, Latin congero‘to carry, bear’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgerōWiktionary, Latin congero‘carry’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcongerōWiktionary, English congeries‘to carry together, heap’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcongeriēsWiktionary, English congeries‘a heap, mass, pile’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1876congeriesWiktionary, English congeries. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1876, James Clerk Maxwell, On Action at a Distance: “And when the Newtonian philosophy gained ground in Europe,…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-

act, action, active, activity, actual, strategy, agency, actor, agent, suggest, agenda, essay, acre, activate, ambiguous, squat, agile, agony, ambiguity, agility, assay, antagonist, agitation, agrarian, axiom, digestion, radium, actuator, antagonism, agonist, agitate, antagonize, digestible, cogent, actuation, samaj, stratagem, inexact, glucagon, actuate, 138 more

through Latin gerō ‘carry’

register, suggestion, gesture, digest, belligerent, gestation, progesterone, ingestion, ingest, agger, gerund, gestion, 13 more

through Latin congerō ‘to carry together, heap’

congestion

Today it means

noun A collection or aggregation of disparate items.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “congeries”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin congero. 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 *h₂eǵ- / congeries

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