Etymograph

English

variole

Variole comes from Latin variola ‘an infectious disease causing pustules’, from varius ‘various, variegated, also coming to mean…’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘to be/become empty’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-1‘to be/become empty’uncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wasios1uncertain
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvarius2‘various, variegated, also coming to mean "spotted, speckled"’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvariola3‘an infectious disease causing pustules’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500varioles3‘pustules, pocks’
  6. Englishtodayvariole3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin varius
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin variola
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English variole

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-Wiktionary, Latin varius‘to be/become empty’uncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wasiosWiktionary, Latin variusuncertain
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvariusWiktionary, Latin variola‘various, variegated, also coming to mean "spotted, speckled"’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvariolaWiktionary, English variole‘an infectious disease causing pustules’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500variolesWiktionary, English variole‘pustules, pocks’
  6. EnglishtodayvarioleWiktionary, English variole

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 ‘various, variegated, also coming to mean…’

variety, vary, variation, variable, variant, 9 more

through Latin variola ‘an infectious disease causing pustules’

varicella, 3 more

Today it means

noun A spherule of a variolite.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “variole”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin varius, Latin variola. 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- / variole

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