Where does “alienable” come from?
Alienable comes from Middle English -able combined with Latin alienus, meaning "belonging to another," from alligo, meaning "to bind to," derived from the prefix ad- and the root ad-.
alienable (English): Capable of being alienated, sold, or transferred...
Definitions
- Capable of being alienated, sold, or transferred...
Ancestry of “alienable”, step by step
alienable traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English alien
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | alien | Any life form of extraterrestrial or... |
| 2 | Middle English | alien | An outsider or foreign person, especially one who... |
| 3 | Old French | alien | alien; foreign; non-native; alien |
| 4 | Latin | aliēnus | Of that which belongs to another person, place, or object—of another, alien, foreign |
| 5 | Latin | alius | other, another, any other; else; different |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | aljos | another |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | h₂élyos | other, another |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | h₂él- | to grow, nourish |