English
mutant
Mutant comes from Latin mūtāns ‘altering, changing, modifying, transforming’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- ‘to exchange’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meyth₂-1‘to exchange’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmūtō2‘move, change’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmūtāns3‘altering, changing, modifying, transforming’
- Englishearliest quotation 1918mutant3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin muto
- 2 Wiktionary, Latin mutans
- 3 Wiktionary, English mutant
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1918, Paul Popenoe, Roswell Hill Johnson: “Furthermore, it is possible that there occasionally arises what…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meyth₂-Wiktionary, Latin muto‘to exchange’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmūtōWiktionary, Latin mutans‘move, change’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmūtānsWiktionary, English mutant‘altering, changing, modifying, transforming’
- Englishearliest quotation 1918mutantWiktionary, English mutant. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1918, Paul Popenoe, Roswell Hill Johnson: “Furthermore, it is possible that there occasionally arises what…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- ‘to exchange’
miss, message, mad, mess, commit, premise, madden, intermittent, omit, misnomer, transmutation, commutation, transmute, 18 more
through Latin mūtō ‘move, change’
commute, mute, mutation, molt, immutable, moult, commutative, mutate, mutable, 12 more
Today it means
noun That which has mutated, with one or more new characteristics from a mutation.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “mutant”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin muto, Latin mutans. 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 *meyth₂- / mutant