Etymograph

English

extispex

Extispex comes from Latin extispex ‘a diviner who reads prophesies from the…’, from exsecō ‘to cut out’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sek-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sek-1‘to cut, cut off, sever’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sékh₁yeti1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sekaō1‘to cut’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsecō1‘to cut’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexsecō2‘to cut out’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexta3‘entrails’
  7. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEextispex4‘a diviner who reads prophesies from the entrails of animals’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1836extispex4

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin exseco
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin exta
  3. 3 Wiktionary, Latin extispex
  4. 4 Wiktionary, English extispex
  5. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1836, Thomas Swinburne Carr, A manual of Roman antiquities: “The Aruspices, or rather Haruspices, were those priests whose…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sek-Wiktionary, Latin exseco‘to cut, cut off, sever’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sékh₁yetiWiktionary, Latin exsecoreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sekaōWiktionary, Latin exseco‘to cut’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsecōWiktionary, Latin exseco‘to cut’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexsecōWiktionary, Latin exta‘to cut out’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEextaWiktionary, Latin extispex‘entrails’
  7. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEextispexWiktionary, English extispex‘a diviner who reads prophesies from the entrails of animals’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1836extispexWiktionary, English extispex. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1836, Thomas Swinburne Carr, A manual of Roman antiquities: “The Aruspices, or rather Haruspices, were those priests whose…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *sek- ‘to cut, cut off, sever’

saw, design, sign, ship, seal, sack, scarlet, sawyer, sax, shingle, scythe, sich, sedge, sigil, sain, desiccation, desiccant, 58 more

through Proto-Italic *sekaō ‘to cut’

sexuality, homosexual, dissection, 17 more

through Latin secō ‘to cut’

sex, section, risk, sexual, segment, insect, sickle, het, dissect, seg, brassica, 20 more

Today it means

noun Somebody who predicts the future using entrails

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “extispex”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin exseco, Latin exta, Latin extispex. 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 *sek- / extispex

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