Etymograph

English

wall

Wall comes from Middle English wal, from Old English weall, from Latin vallum, from PIE *welH- ‘to turn’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*welH-1‘to turn’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvallum1‘wall’
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wall1‘wall’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150weall1‘wall’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wal1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1791wall1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English wall
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1791, James Boswell: “He related to me the following minute anecdote of…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*welH-Wiktionary, English wall‘to turn’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvallumWiktionary, English wall‘wall’
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wallWiktionary, English wall‘wall’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150weallWiktionary, English wall‘wall’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500walWiktionary, English wall
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1791wallWiktionary, English wall. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1791, James Boswell: “He related to me the following minute anecdote of…”

The story

Perhaps conflated with waw (‘a wall within a house or dwelling, a room partition’), from Middle English wawe, from Old English wāg, wāh (‘an interior wall, divider’), see waw.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with wall, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *welH- ‘to turn, wind, roll’

  • well ← welle ← wielle ← *wallijā ← *wallijǭ
  • volume ← volūmen ← volvō ← *wolwō
  • revolution ← revolucion ← revolucion ← revolūtiō ← revolvō
  • evolution ← ēvolūtiō ← ēvolūtus ← ēvolvō ← volvō
  • involve ← involven ← involver ← involvere ← involvō
  • walk ← ġewealc ← *gawalk ← *walką
  • vault ← volter ← voltare ← *vol(vi)tāre ← volvō
  • evolve ← ēvolvō ← volvō ← *wolwō
  • valve ← valva ← *wolVwā- ← *wol-ew-o-
  • revolt ← révolter ← rivoltare ← *revoltāre ← revolvō
  • vulgar ← vulgare ← vulgāris ← volgus
  • helix ← ἕλιξ ← εἰλέω ← ἧλιξ

91 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of wall

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*welH-‘wave’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wallaną‘to fount, stream, boil’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wallan‘to well up, spring out, bubble forth’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150weallan‘to bubble, boil’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wallen
  6. Englishtodaywall

Another origin of wall

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wallôreconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150*weallareconstructed
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500walle
  4. Englishtodaywall

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Today it means

noun A rampart of earth, stones etc. built up for defensive purposes.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “wall”. 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 *welH- / wall