English
curve
Curve comes from Latin curvus ‘bent, curved’.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English curve
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1866, The Missouri Yearbook of Agriculture: An, Missouri. State Board of Agriculture: “[…] the shoulders not too wide above, bowing outward…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcurvusWiktionary, English curve‘bent, curved’
- Englishearliest quotation 1866curveWiktionary, English curve. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1866, The Missouri Yearbook of Agriculture: An, Missouri. State Board of Agriculture: “[…] the shoulders not too wide above, bowing outward…”
The story
Attested since the 1690s, from Latin curvus (‘bent, curved’), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (‘to bend, curve, turn’) + *-wós.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to bend, curve, turn’
short, across, share, card, cross, cancer, screen, score, shirt, circle, crucial, circuit, scare, skirt, carnival, circulation, scar, cancellation, scrutiny, shrine, circus, crest, circa, corona, shear, scorpion, incarceration, shred, carnage, raffle, carcinoma, corolla, scorn, shrewd, crux, shard, carnal, circulate, cirque, riddance, 117 more
through Proto-Italic *korwos
through Latin curvus ‘bent, curved’
Today it means
adj Bent without angles; crooked; curved.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “curve”. 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 curvus / curve