Etymograph

English

testa

Testa comes from Latin testa ‘a piece of burned clay, brick, tile’, from torreō ‘to burn, parch’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ters- ‘dry’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ters-1‘dry’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*torséyeti1‘to make dry, to cause to dry’uncertain
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*torzeō1‘to burn, scorch’uncertain
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtorreō2‘to burn, parch’uncertain
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtesta3‘a piece of burned clay, brick, tile’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1840testa3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin torreo
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin testa
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English testa
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1840, James Scott Bowerbank, A History of the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the London Clay: “The seeds are furnished with a reticulated testa, very…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ters-Wiktionary, Latin torreo‘dry’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*torséyetiWiktionary, Latin torreo‘to make dry, to cause to dry’uncertain
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*torzeōWiktionary, Latin torreo‘to burn, scorch’uncertain
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtorreōWiktionary, Latin testa‘to burn, parch’uncertain
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtestaWiktionary, English testa‘a piece of burned clay, brick, tile’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1840testaWiktionary, English testa. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1840, James Scott Bowerbank, A History of the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the London Clay: “The seeds are furnished with a reticulated testa, very…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *ters- ‘dry’

territory, inter, territorial, terrain, terrace, thirst, terra, terrier, terrestrial, fossa, fosse, terroir, terrine, 40 more

through Latin torreō ‘to burn, parch’

toast, torrent, torrid, 19 more

through Latin testa ‘a piece of burned clay, brick, tile’

tester, testy, 15 more

Today it means

noun A seed coat.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “testa”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin torreo, Latin testa. 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 *ters- / testa

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