Etymograph

English

orbit

Orbit comes from Latin orbita ‘course, track, impression, mark’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃erbʰ- ‘to turn’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃erbʰ-1‘to turn’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEorbita2‘course, track, impression, mark’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500orbite2
  4. Englishearliest quotation 2013orbit2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin orbita
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English orbit
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2013, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy: “I have orbited my entire life around you, and…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃erbʰ-Wiktionary, Latin orbita‘to turn’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEorbitaWiktionary, English orbit‘course, track, impression, mark’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500orbiteWiktionary, English orbit
  4. Englishearliest quotation 2013orbitWiktionary, English orbit. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2013, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy: “I have orbited my entire life around you, and…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₃erbʰ- ‘to turn’

robot, bot, orphan, orb, erf, 15 more

Today it means

noun An elliptical movement of an object about a celestial object or Lagrange point, especially a periodic elliptical revolution.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “orbit”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin orbita. 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 *h₃erbʰ- / orbit

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