Etymograph

English

mount

Mount comes from Old English munt, borrowed from Latin mōns ‘hill, mountain’, from Proto-Indo-European *men- ‘to stand out’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*men-1‘to stand out, tower’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*móntis2‘hill, mountain’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*monts2‘mountain’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmōns2‘hill, mountain’
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150munt2‘hill, mountain’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mount2‘mountain’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1611mount2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin emineo
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English mount
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “⸿ For thus hath the Lord of hoſtes said…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*men-Wiktionary, Latin emineo‘to stand out, tower’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*móntisWiktionary, English mount‘hill, mountain’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*montsWiktionary, English mount‘mountain’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmōnsWiktionary, English mount‘hill, mountain’
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150muntWiktionary, English mount‘hill, mountain’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mountWiktionary, English mount‘mountain’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1611mountWiktionary, English mount. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “⸿ For thus hath the Lord of hoſtes said…”

The story

Not related to mound.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *men- ‘to stand out’

  • music ← musik ← musik ← mūsica ← μουσική
  • mind ← minde ← mynd ← *mundi ← *mundiz
  • money ← moneye ← muneie ← monoie ← moneie
  • remain ← remainen ← remaneō ← maneō ← *m(V)nēō
  • museum ← Μουσεῖον ← Μοῦσᾰ
  • comment ← coment ← coment ← commentum
  • mental ← mentālis ← mēns ← *mentis ← *méntis
  • mention ← mencioun ← mentiōnem ← mentiō ← meminī
  • auto ← automatic ← automaticus ← automatum ← αὐτόμᾰτον
  • min ← myne ← *muni ← *muniz ← *gaminþiją
  • permanent ← permanēns ← permaneō ← maneō ← *m̥néh₁yeti
  • monster ← monstre ← monstre ← mōnstrum ← *monestrom

164 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of mount

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*men-‘to stand out, to tower’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*móntisreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*montsreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmonsas montem‘mountain’
  5. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*montāre‘climb’reconstructed
  6. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400munter
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mounten‘to climb atop a mount’
  8. Englishtodaymount

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Today it means

noun A hill or mountain.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “mount”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin emineo. 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 *men- / mount