Etymograph

English

echo

Echo comes from Latin ēchō ‘repercussion of sound, echo’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sweh₂gʰ-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sweh₂gʰ-1‘to sound’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*wākʰā́1reconstructed
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἠχή1ēkhḗ‘sound’
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἠχώ1ēkhṓ
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēchō1‘repercussion of sound, echo’
  6. Medieval Latinmodernēccō1
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500eccho1
  8. Englishearliest quotation c. 1588–1593echo1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English echo
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus: “The babbling echo mocks the hounds.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sweh₂gʰ-Wiktionary, English echo‘to sound’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*wākʰā́Wiktionary, English echoreconstructed
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἠχήWiktionary, English echoēkhḗ‘sound’
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἠχώWiktionary, English echoēkhṓ
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēchōWiktionary, English echo‘repercussion of sound, echo’
  6. Medieval LatinmodernēccōWiktionary, English echo
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ecchoWiktionary, English echo
  8. Englishearliest quotation c. 1588–1593echoWiktionary, English echo. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus: “The babbling echo mocks the hounds.”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *sweh₂gʰ- ‘to sound’

swoon, 7 more

Today it means

noun A reflected sound that is heard again by its initial observer.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “echo”. 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 *sweh₂gʰ- / echo

Shirt and support for this word