Etymograph

English

external

External comes from Medieval Latin externus ‘outward, external’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵʰsteros.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁eǵʰsteros1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*eksteros1reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexter2‘outward’
  4. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500externus3‘outward’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1591external3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin exter
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin externus
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English external
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixt: “Her virtues graced with external gifts.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁eǵʰsterosWiktionary, Latin exterreconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*eksterosWiktionary, Latin exterreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexterWiktionary, Latin externus‘outward’
  4. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500externusWiktionary, English external‘outward’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1591externalWiktionary, English external. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixt: “Her virtues graced with external gifts.”

Word family

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

through Proto-Italic *eksteros

  • stranger ← straunger ← estrangier ← estrange ← extrāneus

through Latin exter ‘outward, on the outside’

  • strange ← straunge ← estraunge ← estrange ← extrāneus

5 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Outside of something; on the exterior.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “external”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin exter, Latin externus. 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 *h₁eǵʰsteros / external