Etymograph

English

reality

Reality comes from French réalité, from Medieval Latin reālitās, from Late Latin reālis ‘real’, from Latin rēs ‘thing’, ultimately from PIE *reh₁ís ‘wealth, goods’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*reh₁ís1‘wealth, goods’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*reis1reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErēs1‘thing, matter’
  4. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEreālis1‘real’
  5. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500reālitās1
  6. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600realité1‘property, possession’
  7. Frenchc. 1600–presentréalité1‘quality of being real’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1642reality1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English reality
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State: “To express our reality to the emperor.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*reh₁ísWiktionary, English reality‘wealth, goods’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*reisWiktionary, English realityreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErēsWiktionary, English reality‘thing, matter’
  4. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEreālisWiktionary, English reality‘real’
  5. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500reālitāsWiktionary, English reality
  6. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600realitéWiktionary, English reality‘property, possession’
  7. Frenchc. 1600–presentréalitéWiktionary, English reality‘quality of being real’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1642realityWiktionary, English reality. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State: “To express our reality to the emperor.”

first attested First attested in c. 1540 (as stated in Wiktionary’s etymology)

The story

Recorded since 1550 as a legal term in the sense of “fixed property” (compare real estate, realty); the sense “real existence” is attested from 1647. First attested in c. 1540.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

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

through Classical Latin rēs ‘thing, object, stuff’

20 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun The state of being actual or real; realness.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “reality”. 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 *reh₁ís / reality