Etymograph

English

oculus

Oculus comes from Latin oculus ‘eye’, and perhaps goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- ‘to see’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃ekʷ-1‘to see’uncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*okʷ(e)los1reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEoculus2‘eye’
  4. Englishtodayoculus2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin oculus
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English oculus

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃ekʷ-Wiktionary, Latin oculus‘to see’uncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*okʷ(e)losWiktionary, Latin oculusreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEoculusWiktionary, English oculus‘eye’
  4. EnglishtodayoculusWiktionary, English oculus

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- ‘to see’

eye, anthropology, optics, ogle, synoptic, awk, anthropoid, 38 more

through Latin oculus ‘eye’

monocle, ocular, inoculation, doily, inoculate, 16 more

Today it means

noun The central boss of a volute.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “oculus”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin oculus. 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 *h₃ekʷ- / oculus

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