Etymograph

English

obit

Obit comes from Latin obitus ‘going down’, and goes back to eō ‘go’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEeō1‘go’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEobeō2as obīre‘to go down, to die’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEobitus2‘going down’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400obit2
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1971obit2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin obeo
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English obit
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: “Medieval wills often contained bequests to pay for the…”.

Earlier history not traced here. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEeōWiktionary, Latin obeo‘go’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEobeōWiktionary, English obitas obīre‘to go down, to die’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEobitusWiktionary, English obit‘going down’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400obitWiktionary, English obit
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1971obitWiktionary, English obit. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: “Medieval wills often contained bequests to pay for the…”

Linked words

through Latin eō ‘go’

issue, initial, transition, exit, ambitious, trance, ambition, transient, ambient, eyre, sedition, transitive, transitory, ambiance, seditious, praetorian, praetor, ambit, 24 more

Today it means

noun The death of a person.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “obit”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin obeo. 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 / Latin eō / obit

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