Etymograph

English

spica

Spica comes from Latin spica ‘a head, ear, spike’, and goes back to Proto-Italic *speikā.

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*speikā1reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspica1‘a head, ear, spike’
  3. Englishtodayspica1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English spica

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*speikāWiktionary, English spicareconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspicaWiktionary, English spica‘a head, ear, spike’
  3. EnglishtodayspicaWiktionary, English spica

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *spey- ‘long, thin, sharp’

spike, spine, spinal, spinach, cusp, asp, spire, buckthorn, spina, aspic, 28 more

through Latin spica ‘a head, ear, spike’

spigot, 5 more

Today it means

noun A spike (kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis).

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “spica”. 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-Italic *speikā / spica

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