carat

The story

1. Ancient Greek · derived fromκεράτιον“hornlet, carob seed”
2. Arabic · derived fromقِيرَاط“carat, similarly small units such as inches”
3. Italian · derived fromcarato
4. Middle French · borrowed fromcarat
5. English todaycarat

From Middle French carat, from Italian carato, from Arabic قِيرَاط (qīrāṭ, “carat, similarly small units such as inches”), from Ancient Greek κεράτιον (kerátion, “hornlet, carob seed”), from κέρας (kéras, “horn”) + -ιον (-ion, diminutive suffix). Doublet of quilate and keratin.

Words from the same roots