entry
enter
/ˈɛntə(ɹ)/go or come inside; begin participation
From Latin intr (within).
from PIE *enter "between, among," comparative of root *en "in." Transitive and intransitive in Latin; in French...
from Latin intrare "to go into, enter" (source of Spanish entrar , Italian entrare )
from Latin intrare "to go into, enter" (source of Spanish entrar , Italian entrare )
from Old French entrer "enter, go in; enter upon, assume; initiate,"
+1 more sourcefrom Middle English entren
from PIE *enter "between, among," comparative of root *en "in." Transitive and intransitive in Latin; in French...
Word Ancestry
from PIE *enter "between, among," comparative of root *en "in." Transitive and intransitive in Latin; in French...
from Latin intrare "to go into, enter" (source of Spanish entrar , Italian entrare )
from Latin intrare "to go into, enter" (source of Spanish entrar , Italian entrare )
from Old French entrer "enter, go in; enter upon, assume; initiate,"
+1 more sourcefrom Middle English entren
from PIE *enter "between, among," comparative of root *en "in." Transitive and intransitive in Latin; in French...
In medieval French, entrer was the everyday verb for stepping into a room, but English grabbed it and started stretching it in every direction. By the late 1300s, you could enter a church, enter a contest, enter a ledger, or even enter office — the verb had become a kind of linguistic master key. The Latin family is a neat little tunnel system: intra means “inside,” while inter, its look-alike cousin, means “between,” which is why English can make such a sharp distinction between intramural and international. Then there’s the modern keyboard enter, a tiny 20th-century clerk that tells your computer to accept the line you just typed. So the word that once meant simply “go in” now also means “launch the command,” as if every press of Enter is a door clicking open.
The Story
In medieval French, entrer was the everyday verb for stepping into a room, but English grabbed it and started stretching it in every direction. By the late 1300s, you could enter a church, enter a contest, enter a ledger, or even enter office — the verb had become a kind of linguistic master key. The Latin family is a neat little tunnel system: intra means “inside,” while inter, its look-alike cousin, means “between,” which is why English can make such a sharp distinction between intramural and international. Then there’s the modern keyboard enter, a tiny 20th-century clerk that tells your computer to accept the line you just typed. So the word that once meant simply “go in” now also means “launch the command,” as if every press of Enter is a door clicking open.
Modern Usage
Sexual slang for penetrative intercourse.
Popularized by: contemporary spoken usage; documented in Urban Dictionary
Notable References
- Enter key usage
- Urban Dictionary sexual sense
Kin & Kindred
From 'intr'·within; inside
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Etymonline
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary