Etymograph

English

pollinate

Pollinate comes from Latin pollen ‘flour, especially fine flour, milldust’, and perhaps goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pel-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pel-1‘flour, dust’uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpollen2as pollen‘flour, especially fine flour, milldust’
  3. Englishtodaypollinate2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin pollen
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English pollinate

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pel-Wiktionary, Latin pollen‘flour, dust’uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpollenWiktionary, English pollinateas pollen‘flour, especially fine flour, milldust’
  3. EnglishtodaypollinateWiktionary, English pollinate

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *pel- ‘flour, dust’

film, felt, simple, simply, push, filter, complain, powder, pulse, repeal, fold, pillow, flaw, compulsive, expel, repel, palpable, propel, palladium, palate, palatable, pelt, peloton, pall, wallow, tuple, polemic, muffle, peplum, palatal, pulver, palp, apoplexy, pillion, interpolate, 63 more

through Latin pollen ‘flour, especially fine flour, milldust’

pollen, 5 more

Today it means

verb To apply pollen to (a stigma).

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “pollinate”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin pollen. 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 *pel- / pollinate

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