Where does “laboratory” come from?
Laboratory derives from Latin laboratorium, meaning a place of work, from laborātor (worker) and -torium (place), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European leb- (to stick or cleave).
laboratory (English): A room, building or institution equipped for...
Definitions
- A room, building or institution equipped for...
Ancestry of “laboratory”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Medieval Latin | laboratorium | laboratory |
| 2 | Latin | labotatorius | laborable |
| 3 | Latin | laborator | plowman, tiller of the soil |
| 4 | Latin | laboratus | produced, having been produced |
| 5 | Latin | laboro | I toil, labor; I endeavor, strive; I suffer, am... |
| 6 | Latin | labor | work; labour, toil; hardship, trouble, fatigue,... |
| 7 | Old Latin | labos | — |
| 8 | Romanian | labă | palm; paw |
| 9 | Hungarian | láb | leg; foot; support, stand |
| 10 | Proto-Uralic | luwe | bone |
| 11 | Proto-Iranian | *Hrawpācáh | fox |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-Iranian | *Hrawpāćás | fox |