Where does “adjective” come from?
Adjective comes from French adjectif, from Latin adiectivus meaning "added to," from Latin ad meaning "to" and the Proto-Indo-European root ád meaning "to."
adjective (English): A word that modifies a noun or describes a noun’s...
Definitions
- A word that modifies a noun or describes a noun’s...
Ancestry of “adjective”, step by step
adjective traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via French adjectif
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | adjectif | adjective |
| 2 | Latin | adiectivus | Alternative form of adjectīvus; adjective |
| 3 | Latin | adiciō | to throw, hurl, cast or fling an object to, towards, or at |
| 4 | Latin | ad- | to; usually prefixed to verbs, in which cases it... |
| 5 | Latin | īn- | un-, non-, not |
| 6 | Latin | în | in, at, on, upon, from (space) |
| 7 | Latin | en | lookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | en | in |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁én | in |
via Old French adjectif
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old French | adjectif | — |