Where does “alert” come from?
Alert comes from French alerte, from the phrase à l'erte combining French à, Latin ad, and Latin erte, ultimately derived from Latin ab.
alert (English): Attentive; awake; on guard; brisk; nimble; moving...
Definitions
- Attentive; awake; on guard; brisk; nimble; moving...
Ancestry of “alert”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | alerte | alert; agile; first-person singular present... |
| 2 | Italian | all'erta | Alternative spelling of allerta; to the height |
| 3 | Italian | erta | feminine singular of erto; steep slope |
| 4 | Italian | erto | steep |
| 5 | Latin | ērectus | erected, made upright, raised, having been set up |
| 6 | Latin | ērigō | to raise up, elevate, lift |
| 7 | Latin | regō | to rule, govern, direct |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | regō | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | h₃réǵeti | to be straightening, to be setting upright |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | h₃reǵ- | to straighten, to right oneself; right; just |