Etymograph

English

filiferous

Filiferous comes from Latin filum ‘a thread’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰiH-(s-)lo- ‘sinew’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷʰiH-(s-)lo-1‘sinew’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fī(s)lom1reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfilum2‘a thread’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1845filiferous2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin filum
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English filiferous
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1845, William Benjamin Carpenter, Zoology: being a systematic account of the general structure: “Like the Polypes , they capture their prey by…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷʰiH-(s-)lo-Wiktionary, Latin filum‘sinew’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fī(s)lomWiktionary, Latin filumreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfilumWiktionary, English filiferous‘a thread’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1845filiferousWiktionary, English filiferous. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1845, William Benjamin Carpenter, Zoology: being a systematic account of the general structure: “Like the Polypes , they capture their prey by…”

Linked words

through Proto-Italic *fī(s)lom

defile, filamentous, 40 more

through Latin filum ‘a thread’

file, annihilation, filament, annihilate, fillet, nihilism, nihilist, nihil, 43 more

Today it means

adj Producing or constituting threads.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “filiferous”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin filum. 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 *gʷʰiH-(s-)lo- / filiferous

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