English
severe
Severe comes, via Middle French, from Latin sevērus ‘severe, serious’, whose deeper origin is disputed.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English severe
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1934, Your Germs and Mine: “In the severer cases of hookworm the patient sometimes…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsevērusWiktionary, English severe‘severe, serious, strict’
- Englishearliest quotation 1934severeWiktionary, English severe. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1934, Your Germs and Mine: “In the severer cases of hookworm the patient sometimes…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with severe, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *seǵʰ- ‘to hold’
- school ← scole ← scōl ← *skōlu ← schola
- sketch ← schets ← schizzo ← schedium ← σχέδιος
- scholar ← scolar ← scōlere ← scholāris ← schola
- hector
- hectic ← etik ← etique ← *hecticus ← ἑκτικός
- epoch ← epocha ← ἐποχή ← ἐπέχω ← ἔχω
- scholastic ← scholastique ← scholasticus ← σχολαστικός ← σχολάζω
- schema ← σχῆμα ← *skʰḗmə ← *sǵʰ-éh₁-mn̥
- shul ← שול ← scuola ← schola ← σχολή
through Latin severus ‘severe, serious, grave in demeanor’
- perseverance ← perseveraunce ← persevērantia ← persevērāns ← persevērō
30 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
adj Very bad or intense.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “severe”. 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 / Latin sevērus / severe