senex (Latin)

Where does "senex" come from?

The Latin adjective 'senex', meaning 'old, aged, elderly'[1], traces back through Proto-Italic '*seneks'[1] to the Proto-Indo-European root '*sénos'[1] meaning 'old'[1]. This ancient root is shared widely across language families, appearing in Sanskrit as 'sána'[1], Avestan as 'hana'[1] meaning 'old'[1], Gothic as 'sineigs'[1], Old Irish as 'sen'[1], Proto-Brythonic as '*hen'[1], Ancient Greek as 'ἕνος'[1], and Lithuanian as 'senis'[1] meaning 'old man'[1]. The apparent discrepancy between the nominative form 'senex' and the oblique root 'sen-' may reflect a Proto-Italic root '*seneɣ-'[1].

Open questions

• Sihler holds the nominative inflection to be a consonant stem with endings remodeled from the antonym iuvenis, while others propose an o stem. [1]
• The nominative senex and oblique root sen may alternatively reflect a Proto Italic root seneɣ that yielded senex in the nominative and a contracted sen in the oblique. [1]

Full etymology tree

• senex (Latin), 'old, aged, elderly'
  • inherited *seneks (Proto-Italic)
    • inherited *sénos (Proto-Indo-European), 'old'

Ancestors

• *sénos (Proto-Indo-European)

Cognates and doublets

• ἕνος (Ancient Greek)
• 𐍃𐌹𐌽𐌴𐌹𐌲𐍃 (Gothic)
• senis (Lithuanian)
• sen (Old Irish)
• *hen (Proto-Brythonic)
• सन (Sanskrit)

Descendants and derived words

• senectus (Latin)
• senectus (Latin)
• seniculus (Latin)
• seniculus (Latin)
• senium (Latin)
• senium (Latin)
• senium (Latin)
• sené (Old French)
• sené (Old French)

Sources

1. senex (Latin) - Wiktionary

Updated September 2026

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