Etymograph

English

vacat

Vacat comes from Latin vacō ‘it is empty’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘to lack’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-1‘to lack’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁uh₂-kos1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wakos1‘empty’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvacō2as vacat‘it is empty’
  5. Englishtodayvacat2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin vaco
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English vacat

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-Wiktionary, Latin vaco‘to lack’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁uh₂-kosWiktionary, Latin vacoreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wakosWiktionary, Latin vaco‘empty’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvacōWiktionary, English vacatas vacat‘it is empty’
  5. EnglishtodayvacatWiktionary, English vacat

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘to lack’

want, various, waste, variety, vast, void, vary, variable, vanity, vain, vanish, waning, vacant, evacuate, wane, vacuous, varicella, evanescent, 27 more

Today it means

phrase Indicates a willingly empty portion of an inscription.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “vacat”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin vaco. 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 *h₁weh₂- / vacat

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