Etymograph

English

termite

Termite comes from Latin termitēs, from tarmes ‘woodworm’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- ‘to rub, rub by twisting, twist, turn’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*terh₁-1‘to rub, rub by twisting, twist, turn’uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtarmes2as termes, plural‘woodworm’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtermitēs2
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1802termite2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin tarmes
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English termite
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1802, Francis William Blagdon, Modern Discoveries; or: “Linnæus describes this insect under the Latin name of…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*terh₁-Wiktionary, Latin tarmes‘to rub, rub by twisting, twist, turn’uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtarmesWiktionary, English termiteas termes, plural‘woodworm’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtermitēsWiktionary, English termite
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1802termiteWiktionary, English termite. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1802, Francis William Blagdon, Modern Discoveries; or: “Linnæus describes this insect under the Latin name of…”

The story

Inferred singular of termites, the plural form borrowed from Latin termites, the plural of Latin termes (‘woodworm’), which was used for termites by Linnaeus.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

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

turn, throw, tournament, thread, tragic, threshold, trout, detrimental, tyrone, detriment, detour, thrash, tourney, attrition, triage, tribulation, tourniquet, detritus, truant, trite, tyro, thresh, derma, 41 more

Today it means

noun A white-bodied, wood-consuming insect of the infraorder Isoptera, in the order Blattodea.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “termite”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin tarmes. 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- / termite

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