Everyday LifeGreek → English
Cord
/kɔːrd/noun
A length of thin rope, or a cable, or a rope-like structure in the body.
The Greek roots
χορδή
khordḗ
gut, string
Literally: “gut string”
Follow a root:χορδή7 words
The story of the word
χορδή was a length of animal gut: a bowstring, or the string of a lyre. Latin took it as chorda, Old French wore it down to corde, and English had cord by about 1300. Chord in music came by a different road, from accord, and only borrowed the h back later to look Greek; the cords that are genuine descendants are the spinal one and the vocal ones.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- c. 1300
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
chordatenotochordharpsichordclavichord
In a sentence
He tripped over the extension cord and took the lamp with him.
The midwife clamped the cord and handed her the baby.