English
pair
Pair comes from Old French paire, from Latin paria ‘equals’, neuter plural of pār ‘equal’, of unclear origin.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpār1‘equal; pair’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400paire1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500paire1‘two people; a pair’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1622pair1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English pair
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1622, John Fletcher, The Sea-Voyage. A Comedy.: “Thou lieſt; I ha’ nothing buy my ſkin, /…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpārWiktionary, English pair‘equal; pair’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400paireWiktionary, English pair
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500paireWiktionary, English pair‘two people; a pair’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1622pairWiktionary, English pair. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1622, John Fletcher, The Sea-Voyage. A Comedy.: “Thou lieſt; I ha’ nothing buy my ſkin, /…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with pair, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *perh₂- ‘to exchange, sell’
- pornography ← pornographie ← πορνογράφος ← πόρνη ← *pórnē
- peerless ← perles ← per ← per ← pār
through Latin par
11 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun Two alike or identical things taken together; often followed by of.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “pair”. 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 pār / pair