Where does “abaft” come from?

Abaft comes from English a- (prefix meaning "in" or "on") combined with English baft, from Latin ad- and Latin ad (meaning "to" or "toward"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₂epo and Proto-Indo-European al-.

abaft (English): Behind; toward the stern relative to some other...

Definitions

  1. Behind; toward the stern relative to some other...

Ancestry of “abaft”, step by step

abaft traces back through 3 separate lines of ancestry.

via Middle English baften

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishbaften

via Middle English biaften

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishbiaften

via Middle English baft

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishbaft
Every word from Middle English baften