Etymograph

English

part

Part comes from Old English part and Old French part, both from Latin partem, accusative of pars ‘part, portion, share’, and ultimately from Proto-Italic *partis ‘part’.

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*partis1‘part’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpars1‘part, portion, piece, share’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpartem1‘accusative of pars’accusative of pars
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150part1‘part’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500part1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590part1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English part
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto VI: “[…] the Faery knight / Besought that Damzell suffer…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*partisWiktionary, English part‘part’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEparsWiktionary, English part‘part, portion, piece, share’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpartemWiktionary, English part‘accusative of pars’accusative of pars
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150partWiktionary, English part‘part’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500partWiktionary, English part
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590partWiktionary, English part. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto VI: “[…] the Faery knight / Besought that Damzell suffer…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with part, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Latin pars ‘piece, portion, share, side, party, faction, role, character, lot, fate, task, lesson’

  • parcel ← parcelle ← particella ← particula
  • parse ← pars ← pars
  • repartee ← repartie ← repartir ← partir ← partir

25 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of part

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*perh₃-‘to provide, produce, beget’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pérh₃tisuncertain
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*partisreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpars‘a part, portion, piece, share’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpartīre
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400partir‘to divide up’
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500parten‘to divide’
  8. Englishtodaypart

Another origin of part

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*perh₃-‘to grant’uncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*partisreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpartem
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400part
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500part
  6. Englishtodaypart

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Today it means

noun A fraction of a whole.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “part”. 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-Italic *partis / part