English
kilogram
Kilogram comes from French kilogramme, from gramme ‘gram’, and ultimately from Ancient Greek γράμμα ‘a small weight’.
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEγράμμα1‘a small weight’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentgramme2‘gram’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentkilogramme3
- Englishearliest quotation 1990kilogram3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, French gramme
- 2 Wiktionary, French kilogramme
- 3 Wiktionary, English kilogram
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1990, Central Asia: “A nan (bread) costs 25 Afghanis : a kilogram…”.
Lineage
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEγράμμαWiktionary, French gramme‘a small weight’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentgrammeWiktionary, French kilogramme‘gram’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentkilogrammeWiktionary, English kilogram
- Englishearliest quotation 1990kilogramWiktionary, English kilogram. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1990, Central Asia: “A nan (bread) costs 25 Afghanis : a kilogram…”
Linked words
through Ancient Greek γράμμα ‘a small weight’
Today it means
noun In the International System of Units, the base unit of mass; conceived of as the mass of one litre of water, but now defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be 6.626 070 15 × 10⁻³⁴ when expressed in units of kg⋅m²⋅s⁻¹. Symbol: kg
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “kilogram”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for French gramme, French kilogramme. 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 / Ancient Greek γράμμα / kilogram