Etymograph

English

tangible

Tangible comes from Late Latin tangibilis ‘touchable, tangible’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-1‘to touch’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*tangō1‘to touch’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtangō2as tangere‘to touch’
  4. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEtangibilis2‘touchable, tangible’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600tangible2
  6. Englishearliest quotation 2019tangible2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin tango
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English tangible
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2019, Exploring the SCP Foundation: Pattern Screamers: “While the SCP universe is, of course, filled with…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-Wiktionary, Latin tango‘to touch’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*tangōWiktionary, Latin tango‘to touch’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtangōWiktionary, English tangibleas tangere‘to touch’
  4. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEtangibilisWiktionary, English tangible‘touchable, tangible’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600tangibleWiktionary, English tangible
  6. Englishearliest quotation 2019tangibleWiktionary, English tangible. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2019, Exploring the SCP Foundation: Pattern Screamers: “While the SCP universe is, of course, filled with…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- ‘to touch’

taste, integrity, integrate, attain, taxis, taxonomy, talon, contaminate, contagion, tama, ataxia, tactician, talus, thwack, 29 more

through Proto-Italic *tangō ‘to touch’

tactile, 9 more

through Latin tangō ‘to touch’

contact, contingent, tame, contiguous, tact, tangent, 10 more

Today it means

adj Touchable; able to be touched or felt; perceptible by the sense of touch.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “tangible”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin tango. 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 *teh₂g- / tangible

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