h₂elgʷʰós (Proto-Indo-European)
Where does "h₂elgʷʰós" come from?
The Proto-Indo-European term *h₂elgʷʰós is built from the root *h₂elgʷʰ-, meaning 'to cost' or 'to have value,' combined with the suffix *-ós. This ancient construction served as the foundational conceptual framework for expressing the notion of a price or payment. It highlights how early speakers linguistically linked the abstract idea of worth directly to the act of costing.
Full etymology tree
- *h₂elgʷʰós (Proto-Indo-European), 'payment, price'
- compound *h₂elgʷʰ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to cost, have value, be worth'
- compound *-ós (Proto-Indo-European), 'Forms possessive adjectives from nouns.'
Ancestors
- *h₂elgʷʰ- (Proto-Indo-European)
- *-ós (Proto-Indo-European)
Updated June 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris