Etymograph

English

land

Land comes from Middle English lond ‘an independent nation, country or realm’, from Proto-West Germanic *land ‘land, area of ground’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lendʰ-1‘land’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*landą1reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*land1‘land’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150land1
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lond1‘an independent nation’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1592land1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English land
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “I'll undertake to land them on our coast.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lendʰ-Wiktionary, English land‘land’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*landąWiktionary, English landreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*landWiktionary, English land‘land’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150landWiktionary, English land
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500londWiktionary, English land‘an independent nation’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1592landWiktionary, English land. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “I'll undertake to land them on our coast.”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with land, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- ‘land, heath’

  • lawn ← laund ← launde ← lande ← *landa
  • lend ← lende ← lendenu ← lenden ← *landī
  • lumbar ← lumbāris ← lumbus
  • loma ← lomo ← lumbus
  • lasagna ← *lasania ← lasanum ← λάσανον
  • loin ← loyne ← loigne ← *lumbea ← lumbus
  • outlandish ← outlandisch ← ūtlendisċ ← *ūtlandisk ← *ūtlandiskaz

10 more relatives in the full family tree

No ads, ever.

Become a founding member, $29 onceI have a code

Explore everything descended from *lendʰ- →

Another origin of land

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hlandą‘urine’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hland‘urine’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150hland‘urine’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*landreconstructed
  5. Englishtodayland

No ads, ever. This is how the app stays alive.

Become a founding member, $29 onceWear this word, $32Support the app

Today it means

noun The part of Earth which is not covered by oceans or other bodies of water.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “land”. 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 *lendʰ- / land