Where does “attenuator” come from?
Attenuator comes from English attenuate, from Latin attenuare meaning to make thin, from Latin ad- (toward) combined with Latin tenuis (thin).
attenuator (English): Any device that attenuates a signal, but...
Definitions
- Any device that attenuates a signal, but...
Ancestry of “attenuator”, step by step
attenuator traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English attenuate
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | attenuate | To reduce in size, force, value, amount, or... |
| 2 | Latin | attenuatus | thinned, reduced, attenuated; weakened,... |
| 3 | Latin | attenuo | I make thin, attenuate, thin, reduce; I make... |
| 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 English ‐or
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | ‐or | Creates an agent noun, often from a verb, indicating a person or object (often machines or parts of them) that do the verb or part of speech with which they are formed |
| 2 | Middle English | -our | — |
| 3 | Old French | -eor | Alternative form of -or |
| 4 | Latin | -ator | -ator, -er; second-person singular future passive... |
| 5 | Latin | -tor | -er |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | -tōr | Forms agent nouns to verb stems |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -tōr | Derives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -tor-s | — |