Etymograph

English

teres

Teres comes from Latin teres ‘rounded’, from terō ‘grind, rub’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*terh₁-1‘to rub, rub by twisting, twist, turn’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEterō2‘grind, rub’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEteres3‘rounded’
  4. Englishtodayteres3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin tero
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin teres
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English teres

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*terh₁-Wiktionary, Latin tero‘to rub, rub by twisting, twist, turn’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEterōWiktionary, Latin teres‘grind, rub’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEteresWiktionary, English teres‘rounded’
  4. EnglishtodayteresWiktionary, English teres

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- ‘to rub, rub by twisting, twist, turn’

turn, throw, tournament, thread, tragic, trout, threshold, tyrone, detour, thrash, tourney, triage, tourniquet, truant, contrite, tyro, termite, derma, thresher, thresh, 38 more

through Latin terō ‘grind, rub’

detrimental, detriment, attrition, tribulation, detritus, trite, 7 more

Today it means

noun A terete muscle.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “teres”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin tero, Latin teres. 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 *terh₁- / teres

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