English
spinous
Spinous comes from Latin spinōsus ‘thorny, prickly’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *spey- ‘long, thin, sharp’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*spey-1‘long, thin, sharp’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*speinā1‘thorn’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspīna1‘thorn’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspinōsus2‘thorny, prickly’
- Englishearliest quotation 1824spinous2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin spinosus
- 2 Wiktionary, English spinous
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1824, Oliver Goldsmith, A History of the Earth: “The cetaceous tribes have their bones entirely resembling those…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*spey-Wiktionary, Latin spinosus‘long, thin, sharp’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*speināWiktionary, Latin spinosus‘thorn’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspīnaWiktionary, Latin spinosus‘thorn’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspinōsusWiktionary, English spinous‘thorny, prickly’
- Englishearliest quotation 1824spinousWiktionary, English spinous. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1824, Oliver Goldsmith, A History of the Earth: “The cetaceous tribes have their bones entirely resembling those…”
Formed from spine + -ous
Proto-Indo-European *spey- ‘sharp point’
Proto-Italic *speinā ‘thorn’
Latin spīna ‘thorn’
Old French espine
Middle English spyne ‘a spine’
English spine
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *spey- ‘long, thin, sharp’
spike, spinach, asp, spire, cusp, spigot, spica, aspic, 26 more
through Proto-Italic *speinā ‘thorn’
through Latin spīna ‘thorn’
Today it means
adj Having many spines.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “spinous”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin spinosus. 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 *spey- / spinous