Etymograph

English

gold

Gold comes from Middle English gold ‘gold (metal)’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- ‘green, yellow’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰelh₃-1‘green, yellow’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰl̥h₃tóm1‘gold’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*gulþą1‘gold’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*golþ1reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150gold1‘gold’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500gold1‘gold’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1897gold1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English gold
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Winston Churchill: “Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰelh₃-Wiktionary, English gold‘green, yellow’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰl̥h₃tómWiktionary, English gold‘gold’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*gulþąWiktionary, English gold‘gold’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*golþWiktionary, English goldreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150goldWiktionary, English gold‘gold’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500goldWiktionary, English gold‘gold’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1897goldWiktionary, English gold. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Winston Churchill: “Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for…”

The story

Germanic cognates include Scots gowd, Dutch goud, German Gold, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk gull, Danish and Swedish guld, and cognates from other Indo-European languages include Latvian zelts, Russian зо́лото (zóloto), Persian زرد (zard, “yellow, golden”), Sanskrit हिरण्य (hiraṇya).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with gold, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- ‘green, yellow’

  • fell ← fel
  • yellow ← yelwe ← ġeolwe ← ġeolu ← *gelu
  • chlorine ← χλωρός ← *kʰlōrós ← *ǵʰl̥h₃rós
  • gall ← galle ← ġealla ← *gallā ← *gallǭ
  • felon ← feloun ← fel
  • gullible ← gole ← gulr ← *gulaz
  • cholera ← χολέρα
  • glib ← glibberig ← glibberig ← glibberich
  • yolk ← yolke ← ġeolca ← ġeolu ← *gelu
  • choline ← χολή ← *kʰolā́
  • zloty ← złoty ← złoty ← *zoltъ ← *źálˀta
  • chlorella ← chlōrus ← χλωρός ← *kʰlōrós ← *ǵʰl̥h₃rós

30 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun (uncountable) A heavy yellow elemental metal of great value, with atomic number 79.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “gold”. 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 *ǵʰelh₃- / gold