Where does “account” come from?
Account comes from Middle English accounten, from Old French acunter, from Latin computo, ultimately from Latin com meaning "together" combined with putare meaning "to think or reckon."
account (English): A registry of pecuniary transactions; a written...
Definitions
- A registry of pecuniary transactions; a written...
Ancestry of “account”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | acounte | An enumeration or count; the act of counting |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman | acunte | account; count; calculation; account; version of... |
| 3 | Old French | aconte | — |
| 4 | Old French | aconter | to tell; to inform of; to do the accounts |
| 5 | Old French | conter | to tell; to say; to recount; to add up |
| 6 | Latin | computō | to calculate, compute, reckon together |
| 7 | Latin | com- | allomorph of con- |
| 8 | Latin | con- | Used in compounds to indicate a being or bringing... |
| 9 | Latin | cum | with, along with; at; -fold |
| 10 | Old Latin | com | Alternative form of cum |
| 11 | Proto-Italic | kom | with, along, at |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 13 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 14 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 15 | German | kitt | putty certain kinds of cement used for fixing e.g. window panes |
| 16 | Old High German | kuti | — |
| 17 | Proto-West Germanic | kwidu | gum, resin |
| 18 | Proto-Germanic | kweduz | resin |
| 19 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷet- | resin, gum; to say, speak |
| 20 | Proto-Indo-European | gū- | to bend; curve; arch; vault; to bow, bend, arch,... |