Edited by Richard Walker, Tuesday 8 September 2026 at 23:02
This definition for the Oxford English Dictionary made me smile, 'View entry' seemed very apt.
The word door goes back to early Proto-Indo-European, perhaps as far back as we can trace that reconstructed language. It hasn't changed much in all that time; the original root would have been something like *dwer- and words derived from it appear in nearly all branches of the PIE family, with senses of 'door' or 'gate' or 'outdoors'.
The Italic branch has given us several familiar words: Latin foris, 'door' gave forum, because forums are outside, and because forums are a good place for discussing legal matters we got forensis, which ends up as English forensic. We also have foreign, someone or something from outside, which reached us via Anglo-Norman.
I'll finish appropriately with a Deoch An' Doris, Scots Gaelic 'A Drink for the Door', the same idea as 'One for the Road'. Cheers!
'Door': A Word with 5,000-Year-Old Hinges
This definition for the Oxford English Dictionary made me smile, 'View entry' seemed very apt.
The word door goes back to early Proto-Indo-European, perhaps as far back as we can trace that reconstructed language. It hasn't changed much in all that time; the original root would have been something like *dwer- and words derived from it appear in nearly all branches of the PIE family, with senses of 'door' or 'gate' or 'outdoors'.
The Italic branch has given us several familiar words: Latin foris, 'door' gave forum, because forums are outside, and because forums are a good place for discussing legal matters we got forensis, which ends up as English forensic. We also have foreign, someone or something from outside, which reached us via Anglo-Norman.
I'll finish appropriately with a Deoch An' Doris, Scots Gaelic 'A Drink for the Door', the same idea as 'One for the Road'. Cheers!