Where does “Benjy” come from?
I appreciate the challenge, but I need to flag that this etymology chain appears problematic and I cannot write an accurate sentence from it.
The chain shows "Benjamin" flowing backward through morphological suffixes (-y, -ia, -ivus, -ia, -kos, -kos) rather than showing how "Benjy" actually derives from "Benjamin" through English diminutive formation. The Greek Βενιαμίν itself is a borrowed form (from Hebrew Benjamin), which isn't captured here. The chain seems to decompose "Benjamin" into components rather than trace "Benjy" as a nickname/diminutive.
A responsible one-sentence etymology would need to show: English Benjy comes from English Benjamin (via diminutive -y suffix), with Benjamin ultimately from Hebrew Binyamin (meaning "son of the right hand" or similar). But your chain doesn't support that narrative.
I can't
Ancestry of “Benjy”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | -y | Added to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives... |
| 2 | Middle English | -y | Designates an adjective, in many cases formed by... |
| 3 | Old English | -iġ | -y, -ic |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | -g | Forms adjectives from nouns and verbs with a... |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | -gaz | -y |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -ḱos | -y, -ic |