Where does “Cork” come from?

Cork derives from Irish Corcaigh, which comes from Irish corcach, a term of unknown original meaning.

Cork (English): (County Cork)

Definitions

  1. (County Cork)

Ancestry of “Cork”, step by step

Cork traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Middle English cork

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishcorkoak bark, cork
2Middle Dutchcurccork
3Spanishcorchocork
4LatincortexThe bark of a tree; the bark of a cork tree;...
5Proto-Indo-European*(s)kort-ek-s—

via Irish Corcaigh

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1IrishCorcaigh—
2Irishcorcachmarsh, swamp

Words derived from “Cork”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kort-ek-s →Every word from Latin cortex →Every word from Spanish corcho →