Etymograph

English

planet

Planet comes from Old French planete, from Latin planēta, from Greek πλανήτης ‘wanderer’, from πλανάω ‘to wander’, of unknown origin.

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEπλανάω1planáō‘wander about’
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEπλανήτης1planḗtēs‘wanderer’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplaneta1
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400planete1
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500planete1‘planet’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1603planet1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English planet
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes […]: “Be they not dreames of humane vanity,[…]to make of…”.

Lineage

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEπλανάωWiktionary, English planetplanáō‘wander about’
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEπλανήτηςWiktionary, English planetplanḗtēs‘wanderer’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplanetaWiktionary, English planet
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400planeteWiktionary, English planet
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500planeteWiktionary, English planet‘planet’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1603planetWiktionary, English planet. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes […]: “Be they not dreames of humane vanity,[…]to make of…”

The story

From Middle English planete, from Old French planete, from Latin planeta, planetes, from Ancient Greek πλανήτης (planḗtēs, “wanderer”) (itself an ellipsis of ἀστέρες πλανῆται (astéres planêtai, “wandering stars”)), from Ancient Greek πλανάω (planáō, “wander about, stray”), of unknown origin.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. So called because they have apparent motion, unlike the "fixed" stars. Originally including also the moon and sun but not the Earth; modern scientific sense of "world that orbits a star" is from 1630s in English. The Greek word is an enlarged form of πλάνης (plánēs, “who wanders around, wanderer”), also "wandering star, planet", in medicine "unstable temperature."

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- ‘flat, broad’

  • field ← feld ← feld ← *felþu ← *felþuz
  • floor ← flōr ← *flōr ← *flōraz ← *pleh₂ros
  • explain ← explanen ← explaner ← explanō ← planō
  • palm ← palme ← palma ← *palamā ← *pl̥h₂meh₂
  • explanation ← explanatio ← explanō ← plānus ← *plānos
  • plain ← pleyn ← pleyn ← plānus ← *plānos
  • clan ← clann ← clann ← cland ← plant
  • archipelago ← arcipelago ← pelago ← pelagus ← πέλαγος
  • fluke ← flōc ← *flōk ← *flōką
  • parma ← parmula ← palmula ← palma ← *palamā
  • explanatory ← explānātōrius ← explānāt- ← explanō ← plānus
  • flounder ← flowndre ← floundre ← flondre ← flyðra

73 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun Each of the seven major bodies which move relative to the fixed stars in the night sky—the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “planet”. 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 / Ancient Greek πλανάω / planet