Etymograph

English

sibilation

Sibilation comes from Latin sibilatio ‘hissing, whistling, sibilation’, and goes back to sibilō ‘to hiss’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsibilō1as sībilāre‘to hiss’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsibilatio1‘hissing, whistling, sibilation’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1962sibilation1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English sibilation
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1962, Sir Monier Monier-Williams, A practical grammar of the Sanskrit language: “The exact labial sibilation denoted by f, and the…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsibilōWiktionary, English sibilationas sībilāre‘to hiss’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsibilatioWiktionary, English sibilation‘hissing, whistling, sibilation’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1962sibilationWiktionary, English sibilation. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1962, Sir Monier Monier-Williams, A practical grammar of the Sanskrit language: “The exact labial sibilation denoted by f, and the…”

Every English word from Latin sibilō

Today it means

noun A hissing sound.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “sibilation”. 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 sibilō / sibilation

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