calme (French)
Where does "calme" come from?
French calme comes down from Middle French calme, a word likely borrowed from Italian calma (perhaps via an Iberian language such as Catalan). Italian calma is thought to go back to Latin cauma, from Ancient Greek καῦμα (kaûma) “the heat of the sun,” built from the verb καίω “to burn.” The sense seems to have shifted from “midday heat” to the “rest/quiet” associated with it, and from there to the modern ideas of stillness and a person’s cool composure.
Full etymology tree
- calme (French), 'calm'
- inherited from calme (Middle French), 'calm; still; windless'
- borrowed from calma (Italian), 'calm, stillness, peacefulness'
- inherited from cauma (Latin), 'heat'
- borrowed from καῦμα (Ancient Greek)
- derived from καίω (Ancient Greek)
- inherited from *káyyō (Proto-Hellenic)
- inherited from *keh₂w- (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited from *káyyō (Proto-Hellenic)
- suffix -μα (Ancient Greek), 'Added to verbal stems to form neuter nouns denoting the effect or result of an action, a particular instance of an action, or the object of an action'
- inherited from *-mə (Proto-Hellenic)
- inherited from *-mn̥ (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited from *-mə (Proto-Hellenic)
- derived from καίω (Ancient Greek)
- borrowed from καῦμα (Ancient Greek)
- inherited from cauma (Latin), 'heat'
- borrowed from calma (Italian), 'calm, stillness, peacefulness'
- inherited from calme (Middle French), 'calm; still; windless'
Ancestors
- calme (Middle French)
- calma (Italian)
- καῦμα (Ancient Greek)
Descendants and derived words
- calme avant la tempête (French)
- calme olympien (French)
- calme plat (French)
- du calme (French)
- garder son calme (French)
- calm (Romanian)
Updated March 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris