Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “climate” come from?

Climate descends from Middle English climat, Old French climat, and Latin clima, from Ancient Greek κλίμα, ultimately deriving from the root κλίνω meaning to incline or lean, tracing back through Proto-Indo-European ḱley- to ḱel-.

climate (English): An area of the earth's surface between two...

Definitions

  1. An area of the earth's surface between two...

Ancestry of “climate”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishclimat—
2Old Frenchclimat—
3Latinclimaslope, inclination; A Roman unit of area...
4Ancient Greekκλίμαa slope, incline, inclination; the supposed slope...
5Ancient Greekκλίνωto bend, slant; to cause to give way, cause to...
6Proto-Indo-Europeanḱley-to shelter, cover; to lean, slope, incline
7Proto-Indo-Europeanḱel-to cover; to incline

Words derived from “climate”

  • climatic
  • microclimate
  • climatology
  • climatological
  • climatically
  • paleoclimate
  • climatal
  • paleoclimatic
  • bioclimatic
  • microclimatic
  • climatologist
  • agroclimatic
  • palaeoclimatic
  • paleoclimatology
  • climatologic
  • hydroclimatic
  • macroclimate
  • climatologically
  • bioclimate
  • geoclimatic
  • biogeoclimatic
  • ecoclimatic
  • paleoclimatologist
  • dendroclimatology
Every word from Proto-Indo-European ḱel- →