Etymograph

English

destroy

Destroy comes from Old French destruire, from Vulgar Latin *destrugō, from Latin dēstruō ‘to destroy’, from struō ‘to build’, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *strew- ‘to spread’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*strew-1‘to strew’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*stréweti1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*strowō1‘to pile up’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstruō2‘to build’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēstruō2‘to destroy’
  6. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*destrugō2‘to destroy’reconstructed
  7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400destruire2‘to destroy’
  8. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500destroyen2‘to demolish’
  9. Englishearliest quotation 1611destroy2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin struo
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English destroy
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Iesus answered, and said vnto them, Destroy this temple,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*strew-Wiktionary, Latin struo‘to strew’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*stréwetiWiktionary, Latin struoreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*strowōWiktionary, Latin struo‘to pile up’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstruōWiktionary, English destroy‘to build’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēstruōWiktionary, English destroy‘to destroy’
  6. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*destrugōWiktionary, English destroy‘to destroy’reconstructed
  7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400destruireWiktionary, English destroy‘to destroy’
  8. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500destroyenWiktionary, English destroy‘to demolish’
  9. Englishearliest quotation 1611destroyWiktionary, English destroy. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Iesus answered, and said vnto them, Destroy this temple,…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with destroy, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *strew- ‘to strew, to spread out’

through Proto-Italic *strowō ‘to construct, build’

through Latin struō ‘to build’

27 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

verb To damage beyond use or repair; to damage (something) to the point that it effectively ceases to exist.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “destroy”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin struo. 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 *strew- / destroy