Etymograph

English

zone

Zone comes from Latin zōna ‘belt’, from Greek ζώνη ‘girdle, belt’, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *yoh₃snéh₂.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*yoh₃snéh₂1reconstructed
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEζώνη1zṓnē‘belt, sash, girdle’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEzōna1‘belt’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1567zone1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English zone
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1567, Ovid, Metamorphoses: “And as two Zones doe cut the Heaven upon…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*yoh₃snéh₂Wiktionary, English zonereconstructed
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEζώνηWiktionary, English zonezṓnē‘belt, sash, girdle’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEzōnaWiktionary, English zone‘belt’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1567zoneWiktionary, English zone. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1567, Ovid, Metamorphoses: “And as two Zones doe cut the Heaven upon…”

Linked words

through Latin zōna ‘belt, girdle’

zona, 2 more

Today it means

noun Each of the five regions of the earth's surface into which it was divided by climatic differences, namely the torrid zone (between the tropics), two temperate zones (between the tropics and the polar circles), and two frigid zones (within the polar circles).

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “zone”. 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 *yoh₃snéh₂ / zone

Shirt and support for this word