Etymologically
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colony

Etymology and origin of the English word colony

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1382
Ultimate origin
Latin (colonia)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈkɒl.ə.ni/ (UK); /ˈkɔl.ə.ni/, /ˈkɑ.lə.ni/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English colonie, borrowed through Old French colonie or directly from Latin colōnia (“settled land, farm, landed estate”),[2][3][4] from colōnus, cultivator, settler,[3][2] from colere (“to cultivate, inhabit”) (see culture),[3][5] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to turn, move round; dwell”).[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Roman settlement outside Italy: about 1382–84, in the Wycliffe Bible.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that a Roman colonia was especially a settlement of veteran soldiers, a sense preserved in the names of Cologne (Colonia Agrippina) and Lincoln (Lindum Colonia).[5] The Romans also used it to translate Greek apoikia, a settlement of people from home,[3] and English applied it to Greek colonies from 1580.[6] A body of people settling in a new country while remaining subject to the mother country is from 1548–49 (the 1540s),[6][3] and the territory colonized from 1612.[6] A quarter inhabited by a group of foreigners is from 1711.[6] In biology, a group of organisms of one kind living together is a later sense.[7][8]

Timeline

  • c. 1382 – a Roman settlement.[2]
  • 1548–49 – a body of settlers.[6]
  • 1580 – a Greek colony.[6]
  • 1612 – a colonized territory.[6]
  • 1711 – a foreign quarter.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A group of emigrants who settle in a distant land but stay linked to their home country.
  2. A territory so settled, or one ruled by a distant country; a dependency.
  3. A group of people of the same nationality, interests or occupation living together: an artists' colony.
  4. (biology) A group of animals or plants of one kind living together.

Word family

  • subcolony
  • semicolony
  • colonial
  • colonialism
  • colonize
  • colonist
  • Cape Colony

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Colony.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/colony. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·