Etymograph

English

sarn

Sarn comes from Welsh sarn ‘a causeway, paving’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- ‘to spread’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sterh₃-1‘to spread’by way of Proto-Celtic *star-no-root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
  2. Welshc. 1500–presentsarn2‘a causeway, paving’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1906sarn2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Welsh sarn
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English sarn
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1906, H.C. Tierney, What Does "Pensarn" Mean: “"Not now," he went on, "but there was a…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sterh₃-Wiktionary, Welsh sarn‘to spread’by way of Proto-Celtic *star-no-root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
  2. Welshc. 1500–presentsarnWiktionary, English sarn‘a causeway, paving’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1906sarnWiktionary, English sarn. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1906, H.C. Tierney, What Does "Pensarn" Mean: “"Not now," he went on, "but there was a…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- ‘to spread’

street, straw, strand, prostrate, stratum, sternum, stratus, stroma, 9 more

Today it means

noun A pavement or stepping stone.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “sarn”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Welsh sarn. 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 *sterh₃- / sarn

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