Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “peninsula” come from?

Peninsula comes from Latin paeninsula, a compound of Latin in and Latin insula, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European seh₂l- meaning salt or salt water.

peninsula (English): A piece of land projecting into water from a...

Definitions

  1. A piece of land projecting into water from a...

Ancestry of “peninsula”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Latinpaenīnsula—
2Latinpaenealmost, nearly; scarcely, hardly, barely
3Proto-Indo-Europeanpeh₁-to hate, hurt

Words derived from “peninsula”

  • peninsular
  • transpeninsular
  • midpeninsula
  • subpeninsula
  • peninsulate
  • midpeninsular
Every word from Proto-Indo-European peh₁- →