Etymograph

English

el

El comes from Latin el ‘the name of the letter L’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEel1‘the name of the letter L’
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150el1
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1773el1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English el
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1773, The Monthly Review Or Literary Journal E: “The word length, which contains only four sounds l…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEelWiktionary, English el‘the name of the letter L’
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150elWiktionary, English el
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1773elWiktionary, English el. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1773, The Monthly Review Or Literary Journal E: “The word length, which contains only four sounds l…”

Every English word from Latin el

Another origin of el

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂el-‘to grow, nourish’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*olnos‘that’reconstructed
  3. Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEolle
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEille‘that one’
  5. Spanishc. 1500–presentel‘he, him, masculine personal third person subject and disjunctive pronoun’
  6. Englishtodayel

Today it means

noun The name of the Latin script letter L/l.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “el”. 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 el / el

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