cycle (English)

Where does "cycle" come from?

The English noun 'cycle' traces its ancestry back to Middle English 'cicle' with the meaning 'fixed length period of years'[1]. This Middle English term derived from Late Latin 'cyclus'[1], which itself came from Ancient Greek 'κύκλος' meaning 'circle'[1]. The Greek term developed from Proto-Hellenic, which originated from the Proto-Indo-European root '*kʷékʷlos' meaning 'circle' or 'wheel'[1], a reduplicated derivative of '*kʷel-' meaning 'to turn'[5].

Open questions

The Middle English form may have passed through an unattested Old French intermediary. [4]

Full etymology tree

cycle (English), 'An interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed.'
- inherited cicle (Middle English), 'A fixed length period of years'
  - borrowed (Old French)
    - inherited cyclus (Latin), 'a circle'
      - inherited κύκλος (kúklos) (Ancient Greek), 'circle, ring'
        inherited *kúklos, *kʷókʷlos (Proto-Hellenic)
        inherited *kʷékʷlos (Proto-Indo-European), 'wheel'
        derived *kʷelh₁- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to turn (end-over-end)'

Ancestors

*kʷelh₁- (Proto-Indo-European)
cicle (Middle English)
cyclus (Latin)
κύκλος (Ancient Greek)
*kʷékʷlos (Proto-Indo-European)

Cognates and doublets

chakra (English)
chakram (English)
charkha (English)
chukker (English)
cyclus (English)
wheel (English)

Descendants and derived words

acyclic (English)
cyclase (English)
cyclecar (English)
cycle chord (English)
cycledom (English)
cycle group (English)
cycleman (English)
cyclene (English)
cycle of fifths (English)
cycle per second (English)
cycle polo (English)
cycle shorts (English)

Sources

Updated September 2026

More words starting with C

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