grammargrammar

Grammar comes from Old French gramaire ‘classical learning’, from Latin grammatica, from Ancient Greek γραμματική ‘grammar’, from γράμμα ‘line of writing’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- ‘to carve, scratch’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gerbʰ-¹‘to carve, scratch’reconstructed
2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEγράφω¹‘to write’
3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEγράμμα¹‘line of writing’
4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEγραμματικός¹‘of letters; grammarian’
5. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEγραμματική¹grammatikḗ‘grammar’
6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgrammatica¹
7. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*grammāria¹reconstructedalteration of grammatica
8. Old Frenchc. 842–1400gramaire¹‘classical learning’
9. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500gramere¹
10. Englishearliest quotation c. 1619–1623grammar¹

1. ¹ Wiktionary, English grammar
2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1619–1623, John Ford, The Lawes of Candy: “She is in her Moods, and her Tenses: /…”.