Etymograph

English

latter

Latter comes from Old English læt ‘late’, from Proto-West Germanic *lat ‘slow, lazy’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leh₁d- ‘to be tired’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leh₁d-1‘to be tired’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lh₁d-o-1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*lataz2‘slow’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*lat3‘slow’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150læt4‘late’
  6. Old Englishc. 450–1150lætra4comparative form of læt
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500latter4
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1689latter4

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *lataz
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *lat
  3. 3 Wiktionary, Old English læt
  4. 4 Wiktionary, English latter
  5. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1689, An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […]: “Hath not navigation discovered in these latter ages, whole…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leh₁d-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *lataz‘to be tired’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lh₁d-o-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *latazreconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*latazWiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *lat‘slow’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*latWiktionary, Old English læt‘slow’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150lætWiktionary, English latter‘late’
  6. Old Englishc. 450–1150lætraWiktionary, English lattercomparative form of læt
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500latterWiktionary, English latter
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1689latterWiktionary, English latter. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1689, An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […]: “Hath not navigation discovered in these latter ages, whole…”

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *leh₁d- ‘to be tired’

  • alas ← a las ← lassus ← *lh₁d-to-s
  • leet ← lēt ← lǣtan ← *lātan ← *lētaną

through Proto-Germanic *lataz ‘slow, sluggish’

  • let ← letten ← lettan ← *lattjan ← *latjaną

through Old English læt ‘late’

6 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Near (or nearer) to the end.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “latter”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Germanic *lataz, Proto-West Germanic *lat, Old English læt. 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- / latter