Etymograph

English

last

Last comes from Middle English laste, from Old English latost ‘latest’, superlative of læt ‘late’.

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150læt1
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150latost2
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500laste2
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595last2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Old English latost
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English last
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet: “How long is't now since last yourself and I…”.

Lineage

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150lætWiktionary, Old English latost
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150latostWiktionary, English last
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lasteWiktionary, English last
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595lastWiktionary, English last. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet: “How long is't now since last yourself and I…”

Word family

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

through Old English læt

through Old English latost

1 more relative in the full family tree

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Another origin of last

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leys-‘to track, pursue’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*loystosreconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*laistaz‘track, trace, footprint’reconstructed
  4. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*laistijaną‘to track, follow’reconstructed
  5. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*laistijan‘to track, follow’reconstructed
  6. Old Englishc. 450–1150lǣstan‘to follow, pursue’
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lasten
  8. Englishtodaylast

Another origin of last

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leys-eh₂-reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*laistizreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150lǣste‘shoemaker‘s last’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lest‘shoemaker’s model shaped like a foot, last’
  5. Englishtodaylast

The noun is derived from Middle English lest, leste (‘shoemaker’s model shaped like a foot, last’), from Old English lǣste (‘shoemaker‘s last’), from Proto-Germanic *laistiz, from *laisǭ (‘track, trail’), from Proto-Indo-European *leys-eh₂-, from *leys- (‘to trace; to track’). The verb is derived from the noun.

Another origin of last

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kleh₂-‘to put, lay out’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hlastuz‘burden, load, freight’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150hlæst‘burden, load, freight’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500last
  5. Englishtodaylast

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Today it means

adj Final, ultimate, coming after all others of its kind.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “last”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old English latost. 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 / Old English læt / last