Where does “gallon” come from?
Gallon comes from Old French galon, from Latin galleta, from Latin galla, from Proto-Indo-European gel-.
gallon (English): A unit of volume, equivalent to eight pints;...
Definitions
- A unit of volume, equivalent to eight pints;...
Ancestry of “gallon”, step by step
gallon traces back through 3 separate lines of ancestry.
via Middle English gallon
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | gallon | — |
| 2 | Norman | galun | — |
| 3 | Latin | galum | — |
| 4 | Vulgar Latin | *galla | — |
| 5 | Gaulish | gallā | vessel |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | gallǭ | gall, bile |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵʰelh₃- | to flourish; green, yellow |
via Old French galon
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old French | galon | liquid measure |
via Old Northern French galun
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old Northern French | galun | — |