Etymograph

English

pecuniary

Pecuniary comes from Latin pecūniārius ‘pecuniary, financial’, from pecūnia ‘money’, from pecū ‘cattle’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- ‘livestock’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*peḱ-1‘livestock’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*péḱu2‘cattle’reconstructed*u-stem of *peḱ-
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*peku2‘cattle’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpecū3‘cattle’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CE*pecūnus3‘having cattle’reconstructed
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpecūnia3‘money’
  7. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpecūniārius3‘pecuniary, financial’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1858pecuniary3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *péḱu
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin pecu
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English pecuniary
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1858, Anthony Trollope, Chapter IV: “Perhaps the reader will suppose after this that the…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*peḱ-Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *péḱu‘livestock’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*péḱuWiktionary, Latin pecu‘cattle’reconstructed*u-stem of *peḱ-
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*pekuWiktionary, Latin pecu‘cattle’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpecūWiktionary, English pecuniary‘cattle’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CE*pecūnusWiktionary, English pecuniary‘having cattle’reconstructed
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpecūniaWiktionary, English pecuniary‘money’
  7. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpecūniāriusWiktionary, English pecuniary‘pecuniary, financial’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1858pecuniaryWiktionary, English pecuniary. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1858, Anthony Trollope, Chapter IV: “Perhaps the reader will suppose after this that the…”

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- ‘livestock’

  • fight ← fighten ← feohtan ← *fehtan ← *fehtaną
  • fellow ← felawe ← fēolaga ← félagi ← félag
  • fax ← feax ← *fahs ← *fahsą ← *poḱsom
  • feudal ← feodal ← feodalis ← feodum ← *fehu
  • fawn ← fawnen ← fagnian ← fæġnian ← *faginōn
  • peculiar ← pecūliāris ← pecūlium ← pecus ← *pekos
  • fain ← fægen ← *fagan ← *faganaz

through Proto-Indo-European *péḱu ‘cattle’

  • fee ← feoh ← *fehu ← *fehu
  • feud ← feudum ← *fehu ← *fehu
  • cynical ← cynicus ← κυνικός ← κῠ́ων ← *ḱwṓ
  • hound ← hund ← *hund ← *hundaz ← *ḱwṓ
  • poodle ← Pudel ← Hund ← hunt ← hunt

52 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Of, or relating to, money; monetary, financial.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “pecuniary”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Indo-European *péḱu, Latin pecu. 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 *peḱ- / pecuniary