English
fortis
Fortis comes from Latin fortis ‘strong’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- ‘to rise, high, hill’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰerǵʰ-1‘to rise, high, hill’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*forktis1‘strong, powerful’reconstructed
- Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEforctis1
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfortis2‘strong’
- Englishearliest quotation 2004fortis2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin fortis
- 2 Wiktionary, English fortis
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2004, Stephan Gramley, Michael Pätzold: “All vowels, whether short or complex, are relatively shorter…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰerǵʰ-Wiktionary, Latin fortis‘to rise, high, hill’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*forktisWiktionary, Latin fortis‘strong, powerful’reconstructed
- Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEforctisWiktionary, Latin fortis
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfortisWiktionary, English fortis‘strong’
- Englishearliest quotation 2004fortisWiktionary, English fortis. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2004, Stephan Gramley, Michael Pätzold: “All vowels, whether short or complex, are relatively shorter…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- ‘to rise, high, hill’
berry, borough, burgess, barrow, burglar, bourgeois, brie, burgh, brahmin, burg, brahmana, bergh, bourguignon, broch, borgo, 17 more
through Old Latin forctis
through Latin fortis ‘strong’
Today it means
adj Relatively strongly articulated, hence voiceless and possibly aspirated; especially as compared to the others of a group of homorganic consonants.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “fortis”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin fortis. 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 *bʰerǵʰ- / fortis