Etymograph

English

detect

Detect comes from Latin detectus ‘uncovered, revealed, disclosed’, from tegō ‘to cover’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)teg-1‘to cover with a roof’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*tegō1‘to cover’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtegō2as tegere‘to cover’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdetegere2‘to uncover or disclose’next step skipped: Latin dētegō
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdetectus2‘uncovered, revealed, disclosed’perfect passive participle of detegere
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1885detect2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin tego
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English detect
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1885, Alexander Wynter Blyth, Poisons: “Cantharidin, although readily decomposed by chemical agents, is so…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)teg-Wiktionary, Latin tego‘to cover with a roof’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*tegōWiktionary, Latin tego‘to cover’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtegōWiktionary, English detectas tegere‘to cover’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdetegereWiktionary, English detect‘to uncover or disclose’next step skipped: Latin dētegō
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdetectusWiktionary, English detect‘uncovered, revealed, disclosed’perfect passive participle of detegere
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1885detectWiktionary, English detect. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1885, Alexander Wynter Blyth, Poisons: “Cantharidin, although readily decomposed by chemical agents, is so…”

The story

Sense "to work or solve cases as a detective" a back-formation from detective.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- ‘to cover with a roof’

tile, thug, sauna, thatch, staccato, toque, 29 more

through Latin tegō ‘to cover’

toga, 12 more

Today it means

verb To discover or notice, especially by careful search, examination, or probing.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “detect”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin tego. 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 *(s)teg- / detect

Shirt and support for this word