cult

\ \ [17] The Indo-European base *quel-,* quoldenoted primarily ‘move around, turn’ (it is the source of English cycle and wheel). By metaphorical extension it came to signify ‘be busy’, which later branched out in two semantic directions: ‘inhabiting a place’ and ‘making a wild place suitable for crops’. These are both channelled into Latin colere, which meant ‘inhabit’, ‘cultivate’, and also ‘worship’. The notion of ‘inhabiting’ is reflected in its descendant colony, but its past participial stem cult- has bequeathed us other aspects of its meaning. ‘Worship’ is represented by cult, acquired via French culte or directly from Latin cultus. ‘Developing the land’ appears in cultivate [17], from the medieval Latin derivative cultivāre, and by metaphorical extension in culture [15], from French culture, which originally meant ‘piece of tilled land’.

\ \ Cf.⇒ COLONY, CULTIVATE, CULTURE, CYCLE, WHEEL