English
glomerate
Glomerate comes from Latin glomerātus ‘glomerated, piled, heaped, having been made…’, from glomus ‘a roughly spherical mass’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gel- ‘form into a ball’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gel-1‘form into a ball’uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEglomus2as glomeris‘a roughly spherical mass’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEglomero3‘to glomerate’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEglomerātus3‘glomerated, piled, heaped, having been made into a ball’perfect passive participle of glomero
- Englishtodayglomerate3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin glomus
- 2 Wiktionary, Latin glomero
- 3 Wiktionary, English glomerate
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gel-Wiktionary, Latin glomus‘form into a ball’uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEglomusWiktionary, Latin glomeroas glomeris‘a roughly spherical mass’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEglomeroWiktionary, English glomerate‘to glomerate’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEglomerātusWiktionary, English glomerate‘glomerated, piled, heaped, having been made into a ball’perfect passive participle of glomero
- EnglishtodayglomerateWiktionary, English glomerate
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *gel- ‘form into a ball’
children, child, cold, clean, cloud, chill, globe, gel, jelly, cluster, colt, clout, clot, gelatin, clough, gelato, ganglion, glebe, klutz, clod, globus, globulin, 47 more
Today it means
verb To gather or curl into a ball; to collect (threads, etc.) into a spherical form or mass.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “glomerate”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin glomus, Latin glomero. 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 *gel- / glomerate