War, law & rule

druid

Caesar wrote of the Gaulish priests as druides, from a Celtic compound most scholars read as 'oak-knower' or 'one of strong insight'; Irish druí lived on as draoi, 'magician', and Welsh as derwydd. English took the word from Latin and French in the 16th century, and German and Japanese followed.

Weakest linkCertain

The road to English

From Proto-Celtic to Old Irish, Irish

From Old Irish to Scottish Gaelic

From Proto-Celtic to Welsh

From Latin to German

From English to Japanese

500 BCEProto-Celtic

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

Export “druid”

Embed “druid”

Save “druid”

Export “druid”

Embed “druid”

Save “druid”