English

date

/deɪt/
The fruit of the date palm, Phoenix dactylifera, somewhat in the shape of an olive, containing a soft, sweet pulp and enclosing a hard kernel.

    Etymology graph

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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    From Middle English date, from Old French date, datil, datille, from Latin dactylus (likely via Old Provençal datil), from Ancient Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “finger”) (from the resemblance of the date to a human finger), probably a folk-etymological alteration of a word from a Semitic source such as Arabic دَقَل (daqal, “variety of date palm”) or Hebrew דֶּקֶל (deqel, “date palm”). Doublet of dactyl and dactylus. Displaced native Old English fingeræppel, literally "finger-apple".

    Etymology 2

    From Middle English date, from Old French date, from Late Latin data, from Latin datus (“given”), past participle of dare (“to give”); from Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- (“to give”). Doublet of data.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishdate
      • derivedOld Frenchdate
        • derivedLatindactylus
          • derivedOld Provençaldatil
            • derivedAncient Greekδάκτυλος “finger”
              • derivedArabicدَقَل “variety of date palm”
                • derivedHebrewדֶּקֶל “date palm”
        • derivedLate Latindata
          • derivedLatindatus “given”
    • rootProto-Indo-European*deh₃- “to lay out, to spread out”

    Related: English data (doublet), English dactyl (doublet), English dactylus (doublet)

    Sources