Etymograph

English

family

Family comes from Latin familia ‘household’, from Proto-Italic *fameliā ‘household’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do, put, place’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-1‘to do, put, place’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fameliā2‘household’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfamilia1‘household’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500famylye1
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1813family1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English family
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin familia
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1813, Jane Austen, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton: “To Jane, he could be only a man whose…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-Wiktionary, English family‘to do, put, place’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fameliāWiktionary, Latin familia‘household’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfamiliaWiktionary, English family‘household’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500famylyeWiktionary, English family
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1813familyWiktionary, English family. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1813, Jane Austen, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton: “To Jane, he could be only a man whose…”

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Today it means

noun A group of people who are closely related to one another (by blood, marriage or adoption); kin; in particular, a set of parents and their children; an immediate family.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “family”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin familia. 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 *dʰeh₁- / family