English
tolerance
Tolerance comes from Latin tolerantia ‘endurance’, and goes back to tolerō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtolerō1‘to endure’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtolerāns1‘bearing, enduring, tolerating, tolerant’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtolerantia1‘endurance’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400tolerance1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500toleraunce1
- Englishearliest quotation 2019tolerance1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English tolerance
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2019, Dmitry Shumsky, When Zionism imagined Jewish nationalism without supremacy: “Both [Ze'ev] Jabotinsky and [David] Ben-Gurion also wrote songs…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtolerōWiktionary, English tolerance‘to endure’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtolerānsWiktionary, English tolerance‘bearing, enduring, tolerating, tolerant’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtolerantiaWiktionary, English tolerance‘endurance’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400toleranceWiktionary, English tolerance
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500toleraunceWiktionary, English tolerance
- Englishearliest quotation 2019toleranceWiktionary, English tolerance. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2019, Dmitry Shumsky, When Zionism imagined Jewish nationalism without supremacy: “Both [Ze'ev] Jabotinsky and [David] Ben-Gurion also wrote songs…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- ‘to bear, carry’
talent, atlas, toll, tellurium, extol, 21 more
through Latin tolerō ‘to endure’
Today it means
noun The ability to endure pain or hardship; endurance.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “tolerance”. 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 / Latin tolerō / tolerance