Where does “adage” come from?
Adage comes from Middle French adage, from Latin adagium, derived from the prefix ad- meaning "to" and Latin agio, a term for a saying or proverb.
adage (English): An old saying which has obtained credit by long...
Definitions
- An old saying which has obtained credit by long...
Ancestry of “adage”, step by step
adage traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English adagio
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | adagio | A tempo mark directing that a passage is to be... |
| 2 | Italian | adagio | slowly; adagio; first-person singular present... |
| 3 | Italian | agio | ease, comfort; luxury, comfort; first-person... |
| 4 | Old Occitan | aize | ease |
| 5 | Latin | adiacēns | adjacent, adjoining, neighbouring |
| 6 | Latin | adiaceo | I lie beside, at, near or next to; am adjacent... |
| 7 | Latin | ad- | to; usually prefixed to verbs, in which cases it... |
| 8 | Latin | īn- | un-, non-, not |
| 9 | Latin | în | in, at, on, upon, from (space) |
| 10 | Latin | en | lookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ |
| 11 | Proto-Italic | en | in |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁én | in |