English
late
Late comes from Middle English late ‘slow, sluggish, reluctant’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *leh₁d- ‘to be tired’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leh₁d-1‘to be tired’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lh₁d-o-1reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*lataz2‘slow’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*lat2‘slow’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150læt2‘slow’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500late2‘slow’
- Englishearliest quotation 1595late2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *lataz
- 2 Wiktionary, English late
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1595, The Life and Death of King Richard the Second: “OLd Iohn of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaſter, Haſt thou according…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leh₁d-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *lataz‘to be tired’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lh₁d-o-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *latazreconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*latazWiktionary, English late‘slow’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*latWiktionary, English late‘slow’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150lætWiktionary, English late‘slow’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lateWiktionary, English late‘slow’
- Englishearliest quotation 1595lateWiktionary, English late. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1595, The Life and Death of King Richard the Second: “OLd Iohn of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaſter, Haſt thou according…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with late, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *leh₁d- ‘to be tired’
through Proto-Germanic *lataz ‘slow, lazy’
- let ← letten ← lettan ← *lattjan ← *latjaną
6 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
adj Near the end of a period of time.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “late”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Proto-Germanic *lataz. 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 *leh₁d- / late