English
finish
Finish comes from Middle English finishen, from Old French finir (stem finiss-), from Latin fīniō, from fīnis ‘end’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfīnis1‘end, limit’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfīniō1‘to finish’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400finir1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500finishen1
- Englishearliest quotation 1897finish1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English finish
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Winston Churchill: “Mr. Cooke had had a sloop yacht built at…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfīnisWiktionary, English finish‘end, limit’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfīniōWiktionary, English finish‘to finish’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400finirWiktionary, English finish
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500finishenWiktionary, English finish
- Englishearliest quotation 1897finishWiktionary, English finish. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Winston Churchill: “Mr. Cooke had had a sloop yacht built at…”
The story
From Middle English finishen, finisshen, finischen, from Old French finiss-, stem of some of the conjugated forms of finir, from Latin fīnīre, from fīnis (‘end, limit, border, boundary’), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (‘to stick, set up’) or from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (‘to split’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- ‘to stick, set up’
fix, dig, ditch, dyke, dike, crucify, 20 more
through Latin *fignis
finale, infinitesimal, 11 more
through Latin fīnis ‘end, limit, border, boundary’
final, definition, infinite, infinity, finite, fin, finesse, confine, infinitive, affine, fino, finial, 14 more
through Latin fīnīre
Today it means
noun An end; the end of anything.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “finish”. 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 / Latin fīnis / finish