Etymograph

English

cotton

Cotton comes from Middle English cotoun, from Anglo-Norman cotun, via Genoese Old Italian cotone, from Arabic قُطُن, from Aramaic כִיתָנָא.

  1. Aramaicc. 1000 BCE–700 CEכִיתָנָא1
  2. Arabicc. 500–presentقُطُن1quṭun‘cotton’
  3. Old Italianmoderncotone1
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400cotun1
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cotoun1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1838cotton1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English cotton
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1838, William Newton, The London Journal of Arts and Sciences: “Supposing a frame, or set of moulds, as represented…”.

Lineage

  1. Aramaicc. 1000 BCE–700 CEכִיתָנָאWiktionary, English cotton
  2. Arabicc. 500–presentقُطُنWiktionary, English cottonquṭun‘cotton’
  3. Old ItalianmoderncotoneWiktionary, English cotton
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400cotunWiktionary, English cotton
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cotounWiktionary, English cotton
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1838cottonWiktionary, English cotton. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1838, William Newton, The London Journal of Arts and Sciences: “Supposing a frame, or set of moulds, as represented…”

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Another origin of cotton

  1. Welshc. 1500–presentcydununcertain
  2. Englishtodaycotton

First use appears c. the 1560s, either from Welsh cydun, cytun (‘agree, coincide’) (cyduno, cytuno), from cyd, cyt + un (‘one’), literally “to be at one with”, or by metaphor with the textile, as cotton blended well with other textiles, notably wool in hat-making.

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Today it means

noun A fibrous substance: A soft, fibrous, usually white substance consisting of fine hairs, especially the substance around the seeds of a plant of genus Gossypium.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “cotton”. 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 / Aramaic כִיתָנָא / cotton