Etymograph

English

detection

Detection comes from Latin detectio ‘discovery, the act or process of learning…’, from tegō ‘to cover, to hide’, 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 CEtegō2‘to cover, to hide’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdētegō2‘to uncover, to discover, to detect’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdetectio3as dētēctiōnem‘discovery, the act or process of learning something new’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1897detection3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin tego
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin detectio
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English detection
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Winston Churchill: “In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving…”.

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, Latin detectio‘to cover, to hide’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdētegōWiktionary, Latin detectio‘to uncover, to discover, to detect’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdetectioWiktionary, English detectionas dētēctiōnem‘discovery, the act or process of learning something new’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1897detectionWiktionary, English detection. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Winston Churchill: “In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving…”

Equivalent to detect + -ion

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

Proto-Italic *tegō ‘to cover’

Latin tegō ‘to cover’

Latin detegere ‘to uncover or disclose’

Latin detectus ‘uncovered, revealed, disclosed’

English detect

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, to hide’

toga, 12 more

Today it means

noun The act or process of detecting, uncovering, or finding out, the discovery of something new, hidden, or disguised.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “detection”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin tego, Latin detectio. 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- / detection

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