Where does “blacker” come from?
I need to be careful here. The chain provided doesn't actually support an etymology for "blacker" (the comparative form of "black").
The chain given traces a suffix "-er/-are/-arius/-us/-os" through various languages, but "black" itself doesn't appear in this chain—only "Chinese 兒" appears early on, which is unrelated to the English color word "black."
Additionally, "blacker" is a regular English comparative formation (black + -er), not a word that would have this particular etymological chain.
I cannot write an accurate one-sentence etymology because the chain provided doesn't support the headword "blacker." To follow the rules ("State only what the chain supports. Do not invent dates, cognates, or intermediate steps"), I must decline to create a sentence that would misrepresent the etymology.
Could you clarify whether the chain was meant for a different headword,
blacker (English): One who blacks; comparative form of black: more...
Definitions
- One who blacks; comparative form of black: more...
Ancestry of “blacker”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | -er | A person or thing that does an action indicated... |
| 2 | Middle English | -er | agentive suffix; agent noun suffix |
| 3 | Old French | -er | Alternative form of -ier, verbal suffix;... |
| 4 | Latin | -āre | — |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | -āō | Forms primarily denominative verbs |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -eh₂yéti | Creates iterative/ frequentative/ intensive... |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -yéti | Creates intransitive, often deponent,... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | yé- | — |
| 9 | Chichewa | iye | he, she |