court (English)

Where does "court" come from?

The English noun 'court' entered the language through Middle English 'court'[1], borrowed from Old French 'cort' or 'curt'[1][2]. The French term derived from Latin 'cōrtem' or Late Latin 'cōrs'[1][4], which had contracted from the classical Latin 'cohors'[1][2]. In Latin, 'cohors' was formed from Proto-Italic '*kom' and '*horti-', tracing back to Proto-Indo-European roots referring to an enclosure[3][5]. Originally signifying an enclosed yard or farm space, the Latin word broadened to designate an assembled company, an aristocratic retinue, and eventually the halls of justice and sports grounds that 'court' denotes today.

Open questions

• The Proto-Indo-European form '*ḱóm' is only tentatively linked to the deictic particle '*ḱe'. [6]
• The second element in Proto-Italic '*horti-' is reconstructed as a derivative of the root underlying '*hortos' without absolute certainty. [3]

Full etymology tree

• court (English), 'An enclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area shut in by the walls of a building, or by different buildings; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley.'
  • inherited court (Middle English), 'A courtyard; an enclosed space.'
    • borrowed cort (Old French), 'court (of a monarch)'
      • inherited cors (Latin), 'alternative form of cohors'
        • derived cohors (Latin), 'a court'
          • compound *kom (Proto-Italic), 'with, along, at'
            • inherited *ḱóm (Proto-Indo-European), 'beside, near, by, with'
              • derived *ḱe (Proto-Indo-European), 'Deictic particle, here'
          • compound *horti- (Proto-Italic)

Ancestors

• *ǵʰer- (Proto-Indo-European)
• court (Middle English)
• cort (Old French)
• cors (Latin)
• cohors (Latin)

Cognates and doublets

• cohort (English)

Descendants and derived words

• корт (Bulgarian)
• accourt (English)
• administrative court (English)
• agreement on the choice of court (English)
• all-court (English)
• all-court press (English)
• anticourt (English)
• apex court (English)
• appeal court (English)
• appeals court (English)
• appellate court (English)
• auto court (English)

Sources

1. court (English) - Wiktionary
2. court (Middle English) - Wiktionary
3. cohors (Latin) - Wiktionary
4. cort (Old French) - Wiktionary
5. kom (Proto-Italic) - Wiktionary
6. ḱóm (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary

Updated September 2026

More words starting with C

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris