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Etymology and origin of the English word colon

English has two nouns spelled colon: the punctuation mark, from Greek kôlon "limb, clause", and the part of the large intestine, from Greek kólon.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkoʊ.lən/, /ˈkɔ.lən/[4]
  • UK: /ˈkəʊ.lən/, /ˈkəʊ.lɒn/[4]

colon1 punctuation mark

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1550
Borrowed from
Latin colon
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek κῶλον

Etymology

The punctuation mark is borrowed from Latin cōlon (“part of a poem, member of a verse”),[2][3][5][6] from Ancient Greek κῶλον (kôlon, “limb, member; clause of a sentence, part of a strophe”).[5][2][3][7] Barnhart and Klein relate it to σκέλος (skélos, “leg”) and derive it from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“crooked, bent”),[3][7] and Klein compares Lithuanian kelỹs (“knee”) and the Slavic words for knee;[7] Beekes finds no obvious cognates and thinks the Balto-Slavic words can hardly be related, because of the Greek vowel.[8] The mark was so called because it was first used to set off a clause.[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In rhetoric, a section of a complex sentence, or the pause before it: Etymonline dates the word to the 1540s,[2] Merriam-Webster to about 1550,[9] and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the mid-16th century.[10] The OED's first quotation for both this sense and the punctuation mark is from George Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie (1589).[5][3]

Semantic evolution

In Greek the word meant a limb, and was applied, much like foot, to a unit of verse and then to a clause.[1] In ancient grammar a colon was one of the larger divisions of a sentence;[2] the meaning then moved from the independent clause to the mark that set it off.[2][1] Johnson (1755) defined it as a point marking a pause longer than a comma and shorter than a period, and remarked that its use "is not very exactly fixed".[11] Later uses include separating hours from minutes and the terms of a ratio.[12]

Timeline

  • c. 1550 – in rhetoric and prosody, a section of a sentence or period.[9][2]
  • 1589 – the punctuation mark (:), in Puttenham.[5][3]
  • 1755 – Johnson describes the mark's use as unsettled.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The punctuation mark (:), used chiefly before an explanation, an example, a list or a long quotation.[12][5]
  2. The same mark used in other ways, as between hours and minutes (7:30) or the terms of a ratio (3:1).[12]
  3. (plural cola) In classical prosody and rhetoric, a section of a sentence or of a rhythmical period.[12][9][13]

Word family

  • semicolon
  • dicolon
  • tricolon

colon2 part of the large intestine

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1398 John Trevisa, translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum
Borrowed from
Latin colon
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek κόλον

Etymology

The part of the intestine is borrowed from Latin colon,[5][2][3][13] from Ancient Greek κόλον (kólon, “large intestine; food, meat”).[5][13][1][8] The OED explains the spelling κῶλον (kôlon) found in manuscripts as a confusion with the word for limb,[5] and Beekes notes the same influence in Late Greek.[8] Hoad allows a French source as well, French côlon.[6] The origin of the Greek word is unknown;[2][7][8] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare Lithuanian skilvis (“belly”) and an Armenian word for the guts.[3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The greater part of the large intestine: 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum.[5][3] The Shorter Oxford notes that it was once also used loosely for the belly or guts.[13]

Semantic evolution

The anatomical sense has stayed the same since the 14th century.[5][2] From 1836 it was also used in entomology for the second, usually wider, part of an insect's intestine.[5]

Timeline

  • 1398 – the main part of the large intestine.[5][3]
  • 1836 – in entomology, a part of an insect's intestine.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The main part of the large intestine, running from the cecum to the rectum.[9][5][12]
  2. In insects, the second part of the intestine.[5]

Word family

  • colonic
  • colectomy
  • colitis
  • colonoscope
  • colonoscopy
  • scalene
  • colic

Usage notes

The colón, the monetary unit of Costa Rica and formerly of El Salvador, is from Spanish colón, named after Cristóbal Colón, the Spanish name of Christopher Columbus.[12][7][13][9] A rarer colon, a colonial settler or farmer, is from French colon, from Latin colōnus (“farmer”).[5][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Colon.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/colon. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

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