Etymograph

English

suture

Suture comes from Latin sūtūra, from suō ‘sew, join or tack together’, and ultimately from Proto-Italic *sūō.

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sūō1‘to sew, stitch’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsuō2as suere‘sew, join or tack together’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsūtūra2
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500suture2‘a suture’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1894suture2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin suo
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English suture
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1894, James M. Crombie, A Monograph of Lichens Found in Britain: “It is also generally marked above by flexuose anastomosing…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sūōWiktionary, Latin suo‘to sew, stitch’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsuōWiktionary, English sutureas suere‘sew, join or tack together’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsūtūraWiktionary, English suture
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sutureWiktionary, English suture‘a suture’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1894sutureWiktionary, English suture. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1894, James M. Crombie, A Monograph of Lichens Found in Britain: “It is also generally marked above by flexuose anastomosing…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *syewH- ‘to sew’

sew, seam, hymen, sutra, sutta, 7 more

through Latin suō ‘sew, join or tack together’

souter, 3 more

Today it means

noun A seam formed by sewing two edges together, especially to join pieces of skin in surgically treating a wound.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “suture”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin suo. 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 *sūō / suture

Shirt and support for this word