current

\ \ [13] Current literally means ‘running’. It comes from Old French corant, the present participle of courre ‘run’, which in turn was descended from Latin currere ‘run’. This has been traced back to a prehistoric root denoting ‘swift movement’, which probably also produced car, career, carry, and charge. The Latin verb itself has a wide range of descendants in English, from the obvious courier [16] to the more heavily disguised corridor [16] (originally literally ‘a run’), occur and succour. For the English offspring of its past participle cursus see COURSE. The sense ‘of the present time’ (first recorded in the 17th century) comes from the notion of ‘running in time’ or ‘being in progress’.

\ \ Cf.⇒ CAR, CARRY, CHARGE, CORRIDOR, COURIER, COURSE, OCCUR, SUCCOUR