cloud

cloud · noun, verb¹

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gel-“to ball up, clench”
2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*klūtaz
3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*klūt
4. Old English · inherited fromclūd“mass of stone, rock, boulder, hill”
5. Middle English · inherited fromcloud
6. English todaycloud

From Middle English cloud, from Old English clūd (“mass of stone, rock, boulder, hill”), from Proto-West Germanic *klūt, from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz, *klutaz (“lump, mass, conglomeration”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up, clench”). Cognate with Scots clood, clud (“cloud”), Dutch kluit (“lump, mass, clod”), German Low German Kluut, Kluute (“lump, mass, ball”), German Kloß (“lump, ball, dumpling”), Danish klode (“sphere, orb, planet”), Swedish klot (“sphere, orb, ball, globe”), Icelandic klót (“knob on a sword's hilt”). Related to English clod, clot, clump, club. Largely replaced Middle English welkne, from Old English wolcn (whence English welkin), from Proto-Germanic *wulkną, the original Germanic word for cloud (compare Dutch wolk, German Wolke, North Frisian and West Frisian wolk).

Cloud · proper noun²

1. Dakota · derived frommahpiya“cloud”
2. Old English · derived fromclūd“rock”
3. English todayCloud

* As an English surname, from Old English clūd (“rock”). * As a Native American surname, translated from names such as Dakota mahpiya (“cloud”). Compare Red Cloud. * As a French surname, from an old Germanic name Hlodald, composed of *hlūd (“loud, famous, clear”) + *wald (“rule”).

Words from the same roots