sus (Latin)

Where does "sus" come from?

The Latin noun 'sus', meaning 'pig', 'hog', or 'sow', descends directly from the Proto-Italic ancestor '*sūs'[1][3]. This form traces back to the Proto-Indo-European root '*suH-'[1][3], which also gave rise to cognates across the Indo-European family, including Ancient Greek 'hûs' and English 'swine'. Linguists have proposed that '*suH-' might originally have signified a female breeding animal, connecting it to the root '*sewH-', meaning 'to give birth'[2].

Open questions

• The derivation of '*suH-' from the Proto-Indo-European root '*sewH-', meaning 'to give birth', remains a tentative proposal based on the assumption that the original sense was 'sow'. [2]
• A potential relationship or borrowing between Proto-Indo-European '*suH-' and Near Eastern terms such as Akkadian 'šahû' and Sumerian 'šah' is uncertain. [2]
• The root '*sewH-' may tentatively represent an extension of '*sew-', meaning 'to pour' or 'to squeeze'. [4]

Full etymology tree

• sus (Latin), 'pig, swine, hog, boar, or sow'
  • inherited *sūs (Proto-Italic), 'pig'
    • inherited *suH- (Proto-Indo-European), 'pig, hog, swine'
      • derived *sewH- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to bear (a child)'
        • derived *sew- (Proto-Indo-European)

Ancestors

• *sūs (Proto-Italic)
• *suH- (Proto-Indo-European)

Cognates and doublets

• ὗς (Ancient Greek)
• swine (English)
• sūkara (Pali)

Descendants and derived words

• subulcus (Latin)
• sucula (Latin)
• sor (Romanian)
• sor (Romanian)
• sue (Sardinian)
• sughe (Sardinian)
• sua (Sassarese)
• sui (Sassarese)
• sui (Sassarese)

Sources

1. sus (Latin) - Wiktionary
2. suH- (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
3. sūs (Proto-Italic) - Wiktionary
4. sewH- (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary

Updated October 2026

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