Etymograph

English

spirula

Spirula comes from Latin spira ‘a coil’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sper- ‘to twist, turn’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sper-1‘to twist, turn’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sper-yeh₂-2reconstructed
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEσπεῖρα1‘wreath, coil, twist’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspira3‘a coil’
  5. Englishtodayspirula3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin spira
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek σπεῖρα
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English spirula

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sper-Wiktionary, Latin spira‘to twist, turn’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sper-yeh₂-Wiktionary, Ancient Greek σπεῖραreconstructed
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEσπεῖραWiktionary, Latin spira‘wreath, coil, twist’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspiraWiktionary, English spirula‘a coil’
  5. EnglishtodayspirulaWiktionary, English spirula

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *sper- ‘to twist, turn’

spare, sperm, diaspora, sparkle, sprout, spurious, spore, 21 more

through Latin spira ‘a coil’

spiral, spiro, 2 more

Today it means

noun Any mollusk of the cephalopod genus Spirula, of which Spirula spirula is the only extant species.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “spirula”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin spira, Ancient Greek σπεῖρα. 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 *sper- / spirula

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