Etymograph

English

excrement

Excrement comes from Latin excrēmentum ‘refuse, rubbish’, from excernō ‘to excrete’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *krey- ‘to sift, separate, divide’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*krey-1‘to sift, separate, divide’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*krinō1‘to sift, separate’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcernō1‘separate, sift’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexcernō2‘to excrete’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexcrēmentum2‘refuse, rubbish’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1961excrement2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin excerno
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English excrement
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs: “The Roman poet Horace states that the excrement of…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*krey-Wiktionary, Latin excerno‘to sift, separate, divide’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*krinōWiktionary, Latin excerno‘to sift, separate’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcernōWiktionary, Latin excerno‘separate, sift’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexcernōWiktionary, English excrement‘to excrete’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexcrēmentumWiktionary, English excrement‘refuse, rubbish’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1961excrementWiktionary, English excrement. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs: “The Roman poet Horace states that the excrement of…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *krey- ‘to sift, separate, divide’

certain, criminal, secret, crime, crisis, critic, critique, riddle, criterion, hypocrite, discreet, discernible, endocrine, incriminate, discernment, incrimination, rime, ridder, certitude, criterium, recrimination, 42 more

through Latin cernō ‘separate, sift’

secretary, discrimination, discretion, discriminate, discrete, discern, secretion, secrete, 8 more

through Latin excernō ‘to excrete’

excretion, 2 more

Today it means

noun Human and non-human animal solid waste excreted from the bowels; feces.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “excrement”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin excerno. 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 *krey- / excrement

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