Etymograph

English

yerba

Yerba comes from Spanish yerba, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- ‘to grow (of plants?)’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʰreh₁-1‘to grow (of plants?)’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
  2. Spanishc. 1500–presentyerba1
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1839yerba1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English yerba
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1839, Charles Darwin: “The storehouses at Talcahuano had been burst open, and…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʰreh₁-Wiktionary, English yerba‘to grow (of plants?)’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
  2. Spanishc. 1500–presentyerbaWiktionary, English yerba
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1839yerbaWiktionary, English yerba. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1839, Charles Darwin: “The storehouses at Talcahuano had been burst open, and…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- ‘to grow (of plants?)’

green, grow, grass, groom, gourmet, arbor, herb, graze, greedily, ambergris, 18 more

Today it means

noun Ilex paraguariensis, a species of holly native to southern South America; or the dried leaves and twigs of this plant, used to make the caffeine-rich beverage maté.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “yerba”. 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 *gʰreh₁- / yerba

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