Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “Maxim” come from?

Maxim (English) comes from Middle French maxime, from Latin maxima, from Latin Maximus, from Proto-Italic *magisVmos.

Maxim (English): The Maxim gun, a British machine gun of various...

Definitions

  1. The Maxim gun, a British machine gun of various...

Ancestry of “Maxim”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Frenchmaxime—
2Latinmaximanominative feminine singular of maximus;...
3LatinMaximusthe greatest
4Proto-Italic*magisVmos—
Every word from Proto-Italic *magisVmos →