door
A hinged or sliding barrier used to close an entrance.
Etymology
From Old English duru "door" and dor "large door, gate," from Proto-Germanic *durz, from PIE *dʰwer- "door, doorway, gate." Some scholars have proposed a connection to *dwóh₁ "two" — suggesting a door was originally a "two-part" structure — but this etymology is disputed. The word is well attested across the Indo-European family.
The Journey: *dʰwer- → door
*dʰwer-
*durz
duru
door
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *dʰwer-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word |
|---|---|
| Greek | thúra |
| Latin | forēs (pl.) |
| Russian | dverĭ |
| Albanian | derë |
| Armenian | duṛ |
| Sanskrit | dvā́r |
| Old Irish | dorus |
| Lithuanian | dùrys |
Did You Know?
PIE *dʰwer- "door" has been linked by some scholars to *dwóh₁ "two" — the idea being that a door was originally a "two-leaved" structure. Whether or not this connection is real, the word for door is one of the most stable in the IE family, preserved from Russian dverĭ to English door.
This word descends from the Proto-Indo-European root *dʰwer-. See the full root page for descendant trees, sound law references, and scholarly discussion.