Etymograph

English

expiator

Expiator comes from Latin expiō ‘to make amends or atonement for a crime or a…’, from piō ‘appease’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pewH- ‘to be clean, pure’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pewH-1‘to be clean, pure’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*pīos1‘pious, devout’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*pīāō1‘to expiate’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpiō1‘appease’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexpiō2as expiātor‘to make amends or atonement for a crime or a criminal’
  6. Englishtodayexpiator2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin expio
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English expiator

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pewH-Wiktionary, Latin expio‘to be clean, pure’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*pīosWiktionary, Latin expio‘pious, devout’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*pīāōWiktionary, Latin expio‘to expiate’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpiōWiktionary, Latin expio‘appease’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexpiōWiktionary, English expiatoras expiātor‘to make amends or atonement for a crime or a criminal’
  6. EnglishtodayexpiatorWiktionary, English expiator

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *pewH- ‘to be clean, pure’

pure, deputy, reputation, pour, pity, purity, purification, purify, piety, putative, purist, puro, impious, 16 more

through Proto-Italic *pīos ‘pious, devout’

pious, 7 more

Today it means

noun One who makes expiation or atonement.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “expiator”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin expio. 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 *pewH- / expiator

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