Etymograph

English

cult

Cult comes from Latin cultus ‘care, adoration’, from colō ‘cultivate’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁- ‘to move, to turn (around), to revolve around,…’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷelh₁-1‘to move, to turn (around), to revolve around, and therefore to sojourn, to dwell’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷélh₁eti1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kʷelō1‘to inhabit’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcolō2‘cultivate’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcultus2‘care, adoration’
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentculte2
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1913cult2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin colo
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English cult
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia: “"When frying sausages," remarked Cripps, who seemed to regard…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷelh₁-Wiktionary, Latin colo‘to move, to turn (around), to revolve around, and therefore to sojourn, to dwell’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷélh₁etiWiktionary, Latin coloreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kʷelōWiktionary, Latin colo‘to inhabit’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcolōWiktionary, English cult‘cultivate’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcultusWiktionary, English cult‘care, adoration’
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentculteWiktionary, English cult
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1913cultWiktionary, English cult. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia: “"When frying sausages," remarked Cripps, who seemed to regard…”

Linked words

through Latin colō ‘cultivate’

colony, agriculture, 74 more

Today it means

noun The veneration, devotion, and religious rites given to a deity (especially in a historical polytheistic context), or (in a Christian context) to a saint; a subset of worship.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “cult”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin colo. 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 *kʷelh₁- / cult

Shirt and support for this word