Etymograph

English

score

Score comes from Old English scoru ‘notch’, from Proto-Germanic *skurō ‘incision’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to cut off, sever’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)ker-1‘to cut off’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skurō1‘incision’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350skor1‘a score’
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150scoru1‘notch’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500score1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1591score1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English score
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “Whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)ker-Wiktionary, English score‘to cut off’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skurōWiktionary, English score‘incision’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350skorWiktionary, English score‘a score’
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150scoruWiktionary, English score‘notch’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scoreWiktionary, English score
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1591scoreWiktionary, English score. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “Whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but…”

The story

For the sense “twenty”: The mark on a tally made by drovers for every twenty beasts passing through a tollgate.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to cut off, sever’

  • across ← acros ← an croiz ← crois ← crux
  • card ← carde ← carda ← *carito ← carō
  • short ← schort ← sċort ← *skurt ← *skurtaz
  • cross ← cros ← kross ← cros ← crux
  • cancer ← *kankros ← *karkros ← *kr-kr-
  • share ← schar ← sċear ← *skaraz
  • shirt ← schirt ← sċyrte ← *skurtijā ← *skurtijǭ
  • circle ← cercle ← circulus ← circus ← κίρκος
  • circuit ← circuitus ← circuire ← circum ← circus
  • screen ← scren ← escren
  • crucial
  • curve ← curvus ← *korwos ← *(s)kr̥wós

146 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun The total number of goals, points, runs, etc. earned by a participant in a game.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “score”. 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 *(s)ker- / score