Etymograph

English

pupa

Pupa comes from Latin pūpa ‘little girl’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*peh₂w-1‘few, little’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpūpa1‘little girl’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1959pupa1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English pupa
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1959, Walt Kelly, Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips: “The public is the pupae of the purposely purblind…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*peh₂w-Wiktionary, English pupa‘few, little’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpūpaWiktionary, English pupa‘little girl’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1959pupaWiktionary, English pupa. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1959, Walt Kelly, Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips: “The public is the pupae of the purposely purblind…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- ‘few, little’

few, poor, fewer, pose, pause, puppy, pediatrics, filly, pedagogy, pave, orthopedics, menopausal, paucity, posada, puerile, 29 more

through Latin pūpa ‘little girl’

puppet, pupil, 3 more

Today it means

noun An insect in the development stage between larva and adult.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “pupa”. 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 *peh₂w- / pupa

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