Where does “colliery” come from?
Colliery comes from Middle English colier with the suffix -y, from Middle French collier with -ie, from Latin collarius with -ia, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European roots meaning coal worker or coal pit.
colliery (English): An underground coal mine, together with its...
Definitions
- An underground coal mine, together with its...
Ancestry of “colliery”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Collier | A person in the business or occupation of producing or distributing coal (any of several types of carbon fuel) |
| 2 | Middle English | colier | — |
| 3 | French | collier | A necklace, string-shaped jewel worn around the... |
| 4 | Old French | coler | collar |
| 5 | Latin | collāre | collar, neckband; chain for the neck |
| 6 | Latin | collāris | neck |
| 7 | Latin | collum | neck, throat; upper stem of a plant; servitude |
| 8 | Latin | -is | suffixed to the root of nouns in composition,... |
| 9 | Latin | -a | suffixed to the roots of verbs, forms agent... |
| 10 | Proto-Italic | -ā | Forms masculine agent nouns from prefixed or compounded bases |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | -éh₂ | — |