Etymograph

English

encourage

Encourage comes from Old French encoragier, en- + corage ‘courage’, from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor ‘heart’, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerd-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱerd-1‘heart’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱḗr2‘heart’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kord1‘heart’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcor1‘heart’
  5. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*corāticum3‘courage, heart’reconstructed
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400corage4‘courage’
  7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400encoragier2‘to encourage’
  8. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400encoragier2‘to encourage’
  9. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500encouragen2
  10. Englishearliest quotation 1960encourage2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin coraticum
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English encourage
  3. 3 Wiktionary, Old French corage
  4. 4 Wiktionary, Old French encoragier
  5. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1960, A. W. Bennett, A Locomotive Shedmaster's Day: “The visitors we do not encourage are the many…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱerd-Wiktionary, Latin coraticum‘heart’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱḗrWiktionary, English encourage‘heart’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kordWiktionary, Latin coraticum‘heart’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcorWiktionary, Latin coraticum‘heart’
  5. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*corāticumWiktionary, Old French corage‘courage, heart’reconstructed
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400corageWiktionary, Old French encoragier‘courage’
  7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400encoragierWiktionary, English encourage‘to encourage’
  8. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400encoragierWiktionary, English encourage‘to encourage’
  9. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500encouragenWiktionary, English encourage
  10. Englishearliest quotation 1960encourageWiktionary, English encourage. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1960, A. W. Bennett, A Locomotive Shedmaster's Day: “The visitors we do not encourage are the many…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with encourage, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *ḱerd- ‘heart’

  • heart ← harte ← heorte ← *hertā ← *hertô
  • cardiac ← cardiaque ← cardiacus ← κᾰρδῐᾰκός ← κᾰρδῐ́ᾱ
  • creed ← crede ← crēda ← crēdō ← *krezdō
  • myocardium ← μῦς ← *mū́s ← *múHs

through Proto-Italic *kord ‘heart’

  • recorder ← recordour ← recordour ← recordeor ← recordātor
  • concordia ← concors ← cor
  • discordant ← discordaunt ← descorda(u)nt ← descordant ← discordō

through Latin cor ‘heart’

  • record ← recorden ← recorder ← recordārī
  • accord ← accorden ← acorder ← *accordāre ← concordo
  • discord ← descorde ← descort ← discordia ← discors
  • concord ← concorde ← concordia ← concors
  • cordial ← cordiālis

30 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

verb To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “encourage”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin coraticum, Old French corage, Old French encoragier. 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 *ḱerd- / encourage