Etymology

colony

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Today it means: A geographical area under the remote control of a country; especially to extract resources or exploit labor from that area. Full definition →

Middle English colane ← Latin colōnia ← Proto-Italic *kʷelō
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*kʷelh₁-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*kʷélh₁eti
  3. Proto-Italic*kʷelō
  4. Latincolō
  5. Latincolōnus
  6. Latincolōnia
  7. Middle Englishcolane
  8. English todaycolony

From Middle English colane, colonye, from Latin colōnia (“colony”), from colōnus (“farmer; colonist”), from colō (“till, cultivate, worship”), from earlier *quelō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”). Doublet of Cologne, Colonia, and Köln.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*kʷel- all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.