English
employment
Employment comes from employ, from Middle French employer, from Latin implicō ‘to enfold, involve’, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- ‘to plait’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleḱ-1‘to plait, weave’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplicō2‘to fold’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimplicō2‘to enfold, involve’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400emploier2
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600employer2‘to employ’
- English1500–presentemploy2
- Englishearliest quotation a. 1662employment2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin plico
- 2 Wiktionary, English employment
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: a. 1662, Thomas Fuller, Cornwall: “[…] King Henry [VIII] full fraught all thoſe vvith…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleḱ-Wiktionary, Latin plico‘to plait, weave’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplicōWiktionary, English employment‘to fold’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimplicōWiktionary, English employment‘to enfold, involve’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400emploierWiktionary, English employment
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600employerWiktionary, English employment‘to employ’
- English1500–presentemployWiktionary, English employment
- Englishearliest quotation a. 1662employmentWiktionary, English employment. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: a. 1662, Thomas Fuller, Cornwall: “[…] King Henry [VIII] full fraught all thoſe vvith…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with employment, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- ‘to plait, to weave’
through Latin plicō ‘fold’
- apply ← aplien ← applier ← applicō
- display ← displayen ← despleier ← displicare
- reply ← replyen ← replier ← replicō
- explicit ← explicite ← explicite ← explicātus ← explicō
- exploitation ← exploiter ← explicō
78 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun The occupation or work for which one is used, and often paid.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “employment”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin plico. 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 *pleḱ- / employment