Etymograph

English

stellionate

Stellionate comes from Latin stellionatus ‘cozenage, trickery’, from stellio ‘a newt, a crafty, knavish person’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₁s- ‘to burn, glow’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂eh₁s-1‘to burn, glow’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂stḗr2‘star’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*stērlā2‘star’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstēlla3‘star’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstellio4‘a newt, a crafty, knavish person’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstellionatus4‘cozenage, trickery’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1754stellionate4

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin stella
  3. 3 Wiktionary, Latin stellio
  4. 4 Wiktionary, English stellionate
  5. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1754, John Erskine of Carnock: “The crime of stellionate[…]includes every fraud which is not…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂eh₁s-Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr‘to burn, glow’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂stḗrWiktionary, Latin stella‘star’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*stērlāWiktionary, Latin stella‘star’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstēllaWiktionary, Latin stellio‘star’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstellioWiktionary, English stellionate‘a newt, a crafty, knavish person’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstellionatusWiktionary, English stellionate‘cozenage, trickery’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1754stellionateWiktionary, English stellionate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1754, John Erskine of Carnock: “The crime of stellionate[…]includes every fraud which is not…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr ‘star’

star, disaster, sterling, asteroid, astral, asterisk, aster, 24 more

through Latin stēlla ‘star’

constellation, 11 more

Today it means

noun Any fraud not distinguished by a more special name; chiefly applied to sales of the same property to two different persons, or selling that for one's own which belongs to another, etc.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “stellionate”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr, Latin stella, Latin stellio. 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 *h₂eh₁s- / stellionate

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