Where does “bricklayer” come from?
Bricklayer comes from English layer, from English lay, from Chinese 兒, from Latin laicus, from Latin -are, from Latin -arius, from Proto-Indo-European ḱel-.
bricklayer (English): A craftsman who builds walls and suchlike out of...
Definitions
- A craftsman who builds walls and suchlike out of...
Ancestry of “bricklayer”, step by step
bricklayer traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English layer
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | layer | A single thickness of some material covering a... |
| 2 | English | lay | To place down in a position of rest, or in a... |
| 3 | English | Lee | for someone who lived near a meadow (the Anglo-Saxon for meadow being ley or leag) |
| 4 | Irish | Laoi | lay, song |
| 5 | Middle Irish | láed | — |
| 6 | English | loid | A lock-picking tool made from a piece of... |
| 7 | English | celluloid | Any of a variety of thermoplastics created from... |
| 8 | English | cellulose | A complex carbohydrate that forms the main... |
| 9 | French | cellulose | cellulose |
| 10 | French | cellule | cell; table cell |
| 11 | Latin | cellula | small room, especially that of a slave; humble... |
| 12 | Latin | -ulus | Used to form a diminutive of a noun, indicating... |
| 13 | Proto-Italic | -olos | — |
| 14 | Proto-Italic | -elos | Forms desubstantival and deadjectival diminutive nouns |
| 15 | Proto-Indo-European | -e-lós | — |
| 16 | Proto-Indo-European | -lós | Forms agent nouns from verbal roots |
via English Brick
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Brick | named after Joseph Brick |
| 2 | English | Bridge | OS grid ref TR1854. Recorded as Brige in 1086 (DB), from |
| 3 | Middle English | brigge | A bridge |
| 4 | Old Norse | bryggja | pier, gangway |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | brewwaną | to brew |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰrewh₁- | to boil; to brew |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰer- | to bear, carry |