Where does “absently” come from?
Absently derives from Middle English -ly, Middle French absent, and Proto-Germanic -līkaz and galīkaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European līg- and ḱóm, meaning "like" or "together."
absently (English): In an absent-minded or abstracted manner
Definitions
- In an absent-minded or abstracted manner
Ancestry of “absently”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | absent | Being away from a place; withdrawn from a place;... |
| 2 | Middle English | absent | — |
| 3 | Middle French | absent | — |
| 4 | Old French | ausent | — |
| 5 | Latin | absēns | — |
| 6 | Latin | absum | I am away, I am absent, I am distant |
| 7 | Latin | ab- | from, away, away from; off; at a distance |
| 8 | Latin | āb | — |
| 9 | Proto-Germanic | *ab | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | apó | — |