Etymograph

English

grao

Grao comes from Portuguese grão ‘grain’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵr̥h₂nóm1‘grain’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*grānom1‘grain’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgrānum2‘grain, seed, small kernel’
  4. Old Galician-Portuguesec. 1100–1500grão2‘grain’
  5. Portuguesec. 1500–presentgrão2‘grain’
  6. Englishtodaygrao2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin granum
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English grao

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵr̥h₂nómWiktionary, Latin granum‘grain’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*grānomWiktionary, Latin granum‘grain’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgrānumWiktionary, English grao‘grain, seed, small kernel’
  4. Old Galician-Portuguesec. 1100–1500grãoWiktionary, English grao‘grain’
  5. Portuguesec. 1500–presentgrãoWiktionary, English grao‘grain’
  6. EnglishtodaygraoWiktionary, English grao

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm ‘grain’

corn, kernel, kern, 7 more

through Latin grānum ‘grain, seed, small kernel’

garner, grain, granite, gram, granger, grange, granular, grenadier, granary, granule, 4 more

Today it means

noun A traditional short Portuguese unit of length, equivalent to about 4.6 mm.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “grao”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin granum. 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 / grao

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