Etymograph

English

locality

Locality comes from French localité ‘place, locality’, and perhaps goes back to Proto-Indo-European *stel-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*stel-1‘to put, place, locate’uncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*stlokos1uncertain
  3. Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEstlocus1
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElocus2‘place’
  5. Late Latinc. 200–600 CElocālis2‘Belong to a place’
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentlocal3
  7. Frenchc. 1600–presentlocalité4‘place, locality’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1665locality4

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin locus
  2. 2 Wiktionary, French local
  3. 3 Wiktionary, French localité
  4. 4 Wiktionary, English locality
  5. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica: Or: “It is thought that the soul and angels are…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*stel-Wiktionary, Latin locus‘to put, place, locate’uncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*stlokosWiktionary, Latin locusuncertain
  3. Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEstlocusWiktionary, Latin locus
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElocusWiktionary, French local‘place’
  5. Late Latinc. 200–600 CElocālisWiktionary, French local‘Belong to a place’
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentlocalWiktionary, French localité
  7. Frenchc. 1600–presentlocalitéWiktionary, English locality‘place, locality’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1665localityWiktionary, English locality. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica: Or: “It is thought that the soul and angels are…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *stel- ‘to put, place, locate’

stole, install, stall, stool, apostle, stalk, stale, epistle, stele, apostolate, stela, stell, stolid, 26 more

through Old Latin stlocus

allowance, milieu, allocate, collocation, 10 more

through Latin locus ‘place’

allow, location, locate, lieu, locus, loco, locator, locative, 14 more

Today it means

noun The fact or quality of having a position in space.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “locality”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin locus, French local, French localité. 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 *stel- / locality

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