vacca
/ˈwak.ka/
noun
Origin
Proto-Indo-European
*wā- — cow
Overview
Meaning Now
- A cow, specifically a female bovine.
Literal older meaning
cow
Language path
Proto-Indo-European → Latin
Earliest form
vacca
Earliest period
1st century BC
Journey
The Latin word 'vacca' is the direct etymological ancestor of the word 'vache' in French and 'vaca' in Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician. It is notable that while 'vacca' was the standard Latin term for a female bovine, it was largely replaced in Vulgar Latin by the term 'taura' or other regional variants in certain Romance dialects, though it remained the primary term for the species in the Western Romance languages.
Evolution
- Proto-Indo-European
*wā-
“cow”
Reconstructed root.
- Latin
vacca
“cow”
Standard term in Classical Latin.
Connections
Word parts
vacca
root
cow
Related across languages
Sanskrit
vaśā
cow
Old Irish
fíach
cattle (related to livestock wealth)
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Related to vacca
External references use DefinedTerm semantics.