Where does “officier” come from?
officier (Dutch) comes from Middle Dutch officier, from Old French officier, from Latin officiārius, from French officier, from German Offizier, from Old French officer, from Medieval Latin officiarius, from Latin officium — to throw, reach, pierce; to hit by throwing.
officier (Dutch): officer; plantation overseer; official
Definitions
- officer; plantation overseer; official
Ancestry of “officier”, step by step
officier traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Middle Dutch officier
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle Dutch | officier | official |
| 2 | Old French | officier | officer |
| 3 | Latin | officiārius | officer |
| 4 | French | officier | to officiate; officer |
| 5 | German | Offizier | officer, commissioned officer; any chess piece... |
| 6 | Old French | officer | officer |
| 7 | Medieval Latin | officiarius | officer |
| 8 | Latin | officium | duty, service; office; obligation, an obligatory... |
| 9 | Latin | opificium | work |
| 10 | Latin | opifex | Someone who does work (especially creative or constructive); worker, maker, framer, fabricator, workman, mechanic, artificer, craftsman, inventor, artist, artisan |
| 11 | Latin | Ops | earth goddess, fertility deity |
| 12 | Latin | oscen | any bird by whose song cries augurs divined... |
| 13 | Latin | opscen | — |
| 14 | Latin | ob- | towards; against |
| 15 | Latin | obolus | obolus (Greek coin) |
| 16 | Ancient Greek | ὀβολός | obol, obolus, used at Athens as both a weight and... |
| 17 | Ancient Greek | ὀβελός | a spit, rod; a horizontal line |
| 18 | Ancient Greek | βέλος | missile, arrow, dart; weapon; something quickly... |
| 19 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷélHos | — |
| 20 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷelH- | to throw, reach, pierce; to hit by throwing |
via English overseer
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | overseer | One who oversees or supervises; A critic |
| 2 | English | -er | A person or thing that does an action indicated... |
| 3 | Middle English | -er | agentive suffix; agent noun suffix |
| 4 | Old French | -er | Alternative form of -ier, verbal suffix;... |
| 5 | Latin | -āre | first conjugation |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | -āō | Forms primarily denominative verbs |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -eh₂yéti | Creates iterative/ frequentative/ intensive... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -yéti | Creates intransitive, often deponent,... |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | yé- | — |
| 10 | Chichewa | iye | he, she |