Etymograph

English

cortex

Cortex comes from Latin cortex ‘cork, bark’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)kort-ek-s.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kort-ek-s1reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcortex1‘cork, bark’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2011cortex1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English cortex
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2011, Amie Ninh, Liberal vs. Conservative: Does the Difference Lie in the Bra: “In the study, led by Ryota Kanai of the…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kort-ek-sWiktionary, English cortexreconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcortexWiktionary, English cortex‘cork, bark’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2011cortexWiktionary, English cortex. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2011, Amie Ninh, Liberal vs. Conservative: Does the Difference Lie in the Bra: “In the study, led by Ryota Kanai of the…”

A compound of *(s)ker- ‘to cut off, sever’ + *(s)kert- ‘to cut’

Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to cut off, sever’

Proto-Indo-European *(s)kert- ‘to cut’

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kort-ek-s

corky, 4 more

through Latin cortex ‘cork, bark’

cork, cortical, 5 more

Today it means

noun The outer layer of an internal organ or body structure, such as the kidney or the brain.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “cortex”. 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 *(s)kort-ek-s / cortex

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