English
measure
Measure comes from Old French mesure, from Latin mēnsūra ‘a measure’, from mētior ‘to measure’, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- ‘to measure’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meh₁-1‘to measure’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*mētis1reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmētior2‘to measure’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmēnsūra3‘a measure’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400mesure3
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mesure3
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588measure3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin metior
- 2 Wiktionary, Latin mensura
- 3 Wiktionary, English measure
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “ſince they meaſure our deſerts so meane, That in…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meh₁-Wiktionary, Latin metior‘to measure’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*mētisWiktionary, Latin metiorreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmētiorWiktionary, Latin mensura‘to measure’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmēnsūraWiktionary, English measure‘a measure’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400mesureWiktionary, English measure
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mesureWiktionary, English measure
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588measureWiktionary, English measure. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “ſince they meaſure our deſerts so meane, That in…”
The story
Largely displaced native Old English metan ("to measure" whence modern mete) and ġemet (‘a measure’).
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with measure, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- ‘to measure’
- month ← mon(e)th ← mōnaþ ← *mānōþ ← *mēnōþs
- moon ← mone ← mōna ← *mānō ← *mēnô
- moral ← mōrālis ← mōs ← *mōs
- meal ← mel ← mǣl ← *māl ← *mēlą
- meter ← metere ← metend
- sunny ← sunni ← *sunniġ ← *sunnig ← *sunnā
- moody ← mody ← mōdiġ ← *mōdagaz ← *mōdaz
- metric ← métrique ← metricus ← metrum ← μέτρον
- meta
- metre ← metrum ← μέτρον
- menstrual ← menstruall ← mēnstruālis ← mēnstrua ← neuter
- madder ← meadar ← metar ← metrum ← μέτρον
122 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun Moderation, temperance.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “measure”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin metior, Latin mensura. 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 *meh₁- / measure