English
tetrad
Tetrad comes from Ancient Greek τετράς ‘the fourth day of the month’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres ‘four’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷetwóres1‘four’reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτετράς2tetrás‘the fourth day of the month’
- Englishearliest quotation 2010tetrad2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek τετράς
- 2 Wiktionary, English tetrad
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2010, Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: “Religious movements and cults are often founded on a…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷetwóresWiktionary, Ancient Greek τετράς‘four’reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτετράςWiktionary, English tetradtetrás‘the fourth day of the month’
- Englishearliest quotation 2010tetradWiktionary, English tetrad. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2010, Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: “Religious movements and cults are often founded on a…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres ‘four’
fourth, quarry, cater, kern, farthing, carillon, quire, quatre, ferd, cuatro, quatrain, 18 more
Today it means
noun A group of four things.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “tetrad”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Ancient Greek τετράς. 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 *kʷetwóres / tetrad