English
variograph
Variograph comes from Latin varius ‘diverse, different, various, varied’, and perhaps goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘to be/become empty’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-1‘to be/become empty’uncertain
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wasios1uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvarius2‘diverse, different, various, varied’
- Englishearliest quotation 2011variograph2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin varius
- 2 Wiktionary, English variograph
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2011, Oliver Kahl, The Pharmacological Tables of Rhazes: “I could not find a better solution than to…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-Wiktionary, Latin varius‘to be/become empty’uncertain
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wasiosWiktionary, Latin variusuncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvariusWiktionary, English variograph‘diverse, different, various, varied’
- Englishearliest quotation 2011variographWiktionary, English variograph. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2011, Oliver Kahl, The Pharmacological Tables of Rhazes: “I could not find a better solution than to…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘to be/become empty’
want, waste, vast, vacation, void, vacant, vanity, vain, evacuate, vanish, waning, vacate, wane, vacuous, evanescent, 26 more
through Latin varius ‘diverse, different, various, varied’
variety, vary, variable, variation, variant, varicella, 9 more
Today it means
noun A measuring instrument for variation such as a variometer.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “variograph”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin varius. 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- / variograph