Where does “apply” come from?
Apply comes from Middle English applien, from Latin applicāre, meaning to attach or join to, derived from the prefix ad- combined with plicāre, meaning to fold.
apply (English): To lay or place; to put; To put to use; to use or...
Definitions
- To lay or place; to put; To put to use; to use or...
Ancestry of “apply”, step by step
apply traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Middle English aplien
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | aplien | — |
| 2 | Old French | applier | to bend; to apply |
| 3 | Latin | applicō | to apply |
| 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 |