Where does “portcullis” come from?
Portcullis comes from Old French porte couleice, from Old French porte meaning "door" and Latin porta, descended from Proto-Indo-European per- meaning "to pass through."
portcullis (English): A gate in the form of a grating which is lowered...
Definitions
- A gate in the form of a grating which is lowered...
Ancestry of “portcullis”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | portcolyse | portcullis |
| 2 | Old French | porte coleice | portcullis |
| 3 | Old French | colëiz | sliding, fluid |
| 4 | Vulgar Latin | *colātīcius | — |
| 5 | Latin | colō | to cultivate the land, till, tend, take care of a field or garden |
| 6 | Latin | quelō | — |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | kʷelō | to inhabit |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | kʷéleti | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | kʷel- | to turn |