Etymograph

English

imperator

Imperator comes from Latin imperātor ‘commander, general, chief, master, person in…’, from parō ‘to arrange, order, contrive, design’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pr̥h₃o-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pr̥h₃o-1reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CE*paro-1reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEparō1‘to arrange, order, contrive, design’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimperō1‘to command, give orders to, impose, demand’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimperātor2‘commander, general, chief, master, person in charge’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1843imperator2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin imperator
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English imperator
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1843, TRIUMPHUS: “But to compensate in some degree for what was…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pr̥h₃o-Wiktionary, Latin imperatorreconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CE*paro-Wiktionary, Latin imperatorreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEparōWiktionary, Latin imperator‘to arrange, order, contrive, design’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimperōWiktionary, Latin imperator‘to command, give orders to, impose, demand’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimperātorWiktionary, English imperator‘commander, general, chief, master, person in charge’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1843imperatorWiktionary, English imperator. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1843, TRIUMPHUS: “But to compensate in some degree for what was…”

Equivalent to imperate + -or

Proto-Indo-European *pr̥h₃o-

Latin *paro-

Latin parō ‘to arrange, order, contrive, design’

Latin imperō ‘to command’

Latin imperātus ‘commanded’

English imperate

Linked words

through Latin parō ‘to arrange, order, contrive, design’

several, separate, repair, preparation, separation, apparel, apparatus, parachute, inseparable, disparate, preparatory, severance, pare, rampart, separable, reparation, separator, 17 more

through Latin imperō ‘to command, give orders to, impose, demand’

empire, emperor, empress, imperious, 9 more

Today it means

noun An emperor.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “imperator”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin imperator. 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 *pr̥h₃o- / imperator

Shirt and support for this word