English
guru
Guru comes from Hindi गुरु ‘guru, teacher’, from Sanskrit गुरु ‘heavy; weighty; important’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷreh₂- ‘heavy’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷreh₂-1‘heavy’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷréh₂us2‘heavy’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Iranianc. 2500–1800 BCE*gr̥Húš3‘heavy’reconstructed
- Sanskritc. 1500–500 BCEगुरु2guru‘heavy; weighty; important’
- Hindic. 1500–presentगुरु2guru‘guru, teacher’
- Englishearliest quotation 1817guru2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us
- 2 Wiktionary, English guru
- 3 Wiktionary, Sanskrit गुरु
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1817, William Ward, History: “When the gooroo arrives at the house of a…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷreh₂-Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us‘heavy’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷréh₂usWiktionary, English guru‘heavy’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Iranianc. 2500–1800 BCE*gr̥HúšWiktionary, Sanskrit गुरु‘heavy’reconstructed
- Sanskritc. 1500–500 BCEगुरुWiktionary, English guruguru‘heavy; weighty; important’
- Hindic. 1500–presentगुरुWiktionary, English guruguru‘guru, teacher’
- Englishearliest quotation 1817guruWiktionary, English guru. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1817, William Ward, History: “When the gooroo arrives at the house of a…”
The story
Borrowed from Hindi गुरु (guru) / Punjabi ਗੁਰੂ (gurū), from Sanskrit गुरु (guru, “venerable, respectable”), originally "heavy" and in this sense cognate to English grieve and, more distantly, brute. A traditional, though flawed etymology based on the Advayataraka Upanishad (line 16) describes the syllables gu as “darkness” and ru as “destroyer”, thus ascribing the meaning of “one who destroys/dispels darkness” to the word.
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with guru, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *gʷreh₂- ‘heavy’
- bar ← βάρος
- grave ← gravis ← *gʷraus ← *gʷréh₂us
- gravity ← gravité ← gravitās ← gravis ← *gʷraus
- grief ← greef ← gravis ← *gʷraus ← *gʷréh₂us
- brutal ← brutalis ← brūtus ← *gʷrūtos ← *gʷréh₂us
- grieve ← greven ← grever ← gravō ← gravis
- brigadier ← brigade ← brigade ← brigata ← brigare
- grievous ← grevous ← grevous ← grever ← gravō
- grievance ← grever ← gravō ← gravis ← *gʷraus
- brute ← brut ← brut ← brūtus ← *gʷrūtos
- gravitate ← gravitāt-
- aggravate ← aggravātus ← aggravō ← gravō ← gravis
25 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun In Indian traditions: a spiritual teacher who transmits knowledge to a shishya.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “guru”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us, Sanskrit गुरु. 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 *gʷreh₂- / guru