Word Origin Summary

Alligator is attested in English. Follow the ancestry chain below to trace where this term came from and how it branched into later descendants.

Ancestry Chain

1. illaLatinderived from
2. alligātorLatinborrowed from
3. *h₂ol-no-Proto-Indo-Europeanderived from
4. elaOld Spanishinherited from
5. elSpanishderived from
6. *Hlak-Proto-Indo-Europeanderived from
7. olleOld Latinderived from
8. illeLatininherited from

Descendants and Related Terms

• alligator

  French · derived from

• Alligator

  Translingual · derived from

• alligator

  Norwegian Bokmål · derived from

• algita

  Bislama · inherited from

• アリゲーター

  Japanese · borrowed from

• قاطور

  Arabic · derived from

• aligatorius

  Lithuanian · borrowed from

• ailigéadar

  Irish · borrowed from

What You Can Explore

• 🗺️Geographic migration map — see where this word traveled
• 🌳Language family tree — trace connections across related languages
• 📅Historical timeline — when the word entered different languages
• 🔤Cognates — related words in other languages sharing the same root