papier (French)

Where does "papier" come from?

The French word 'papier' trace its origins back to the Ancient Greek 'pápuros', which referred to the marsh plant used by Egyptians to create writing material. This term entered Latin as 'papyrus' and was later adopted into Old Catalan as paper mill technology spread into Europe via 13th-century Spain. Old French borrowed the term from Catalan, eventually evolving it from a specific reference to reed-based material into the universal word for the paper sheets we use today.

Full etymology tree

• papier (French), 'paper (A material used for writing or printing on, made from cellulose pulp rolled into thin sheets)'
  • inherited from papier (Old French), 'reed, rush'
    • borrowed from paper (Old Catalan), 'paper (sheet material typically used for writing on or printing)'
      • semi-learned borrowing from papyrus (Latin), 'papyrus (plant)'
        • borrowed from πάπυρος (Ancient Greek), 'paper'
          • borrowed from *papyros (Pre-Greek)
      • suffix -er (Catalan), 'forms nouns meaning the location or object where something is usually found'
        • inherited from -ārius (Latin), 'Used to form adjectives from nouns or numerals.'
          • inherited from *-ās-(i)jo- (Proto-Italic)
            • compound of *-āso- (Proto-Italic)
              • inherited from *-eh₂so- (Proto-Indo-European)
            • compound of *-yós (Proto-Indo-European), 'Creates adjectives from noun stems.'

Ancestors

• papier (Old French)
• paper (Old Catalan)

Descendants and derived words

• papiér (Franco-Provençal)
• coucher sur le papier (French)
• Français de papier (French)
• mettre sur papier (French)
• mouchoir en papier (French)
• paperasse (French)
• papier à mouches (French)
• papier à musique (French)
• papier bulle (French)
• papier carbone (French)
• papier collant (French)
• papier colle-mouches (French)

Updated March 2026

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