English
granular
Granular comes from Late Latin grānulum ‘granule, little grain’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵr̥h₂nóm1‘grain’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*grānom1‘grain’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgrānum2‘grain, seed’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEulum3diminutive of grānum
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEgrānulum2‘granule, little grain’
- Englishearliest quotation 1790granular2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin granum
- 2 Wiktionary, English granular
- 3 Wiktionary, Latin granulum
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1790, Abraham Mills, Some Strata in Ireland and Scotland: “This Whyn Dyke is bare at the cliffs ſeveral…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵr̥h₂nómWiktionary, Latin granum‘grain’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*grānomWiktionary, Latin granum‘grain’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgrānumWiktionary, English granular‘grain, seed’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEulumWiktionary, Latin granulumdiminutive of grānum
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEgrānulumWiktionary, English granular‘granule, little grain’
- Englishearliest quotation 1790granularWiktionary, English granular. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1790, Abraham Mills, Some Strata in Ireland and Scotland: “This Whyn Dyke is bare at the cliffs ſeveral…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm ‘grain’
through Latin grānum ‘grain, seed’
grain, garner, granite, gram, granger, grange, grenadier, granary, 6 more
Today it means
adj Consisting of, or resembling, granules or grains.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “granular”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin granum, Latin granulum. 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 *ǵr̥h₂nóm / granular