Etymograph

English

curious

Curious comes from Latin cūriōsus ‘careful, diligent, thoughtful, devoted’, and goes back to incūriōsus ‘careless, negligent’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEincūriōsus1‘careless’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcūriōsus2‘careful’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400curius2
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500curious2
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1576curious2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin curiosus
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English curious
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1576, George Whetstone, The Castle of Delight: […]: “To honour which a worlde of people reſorted unto…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEincūriōsusWiktionary, Latin curiosus‘careless’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcūriōsusWiktionary, English curious‘careful’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400curiusWiktionary, English curious
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500curiousWiktionary, English curious
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1576curiousWiktionary, English curious. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1576, George Whetstone, The Castle of Delight: […]: “To honour which a worlde of people reſorted unto…”

The story

The English word is cognate with Italian curioso, Occitan curios, Portuguese curioso, and Spanish curioso.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

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Today it means

adj Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “curious”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin curiosus. 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 incūriōsus / curious