Where does “commonsense” come from?
Common comes from Middle English comun, from Old French sens, from Latin commūnis, meaning shared or held in common, from Proto-Indo-European ḱóm meaning together.
commonsense (English): Alternative form of common-sense; attributive...
Definitions
- Alternative form of common-sense; attributive...
Ancestry of “commonsense”, step by step
commonsense traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English common
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | common | Mutual; shared by more than one; Occurring or... |
| 2 | Middle English | comun | Shared, common; belonging to all in a group |
| 3 | Anglo-Norman | comun | common |
| 4 | Old French | comun | common |
| 5 | Latin | commūnis | common, commonplace, ordinary, general, universal, shared, shared alike, of both sides, belonging to two or more together |
| 6 | Old Latin | com(m)oinis | — |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | kommoinis | common |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱom-moy-ni- | held in common |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 11 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 12 | German | kitt | putty certain kinds of cement used for fixing e.g. window panes |
| 13 | Old High German | kuti | — |
| 14 | Proto-West Germanic | kwidu | gum, resin |
| 15 | Proto-Germanic | kweduz | resin |
| 16 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷet- | resin, gum; to say, speak |
| 17 | Proto-Indo-European | gū- | to bend; curve; arch; vault; to bow, bend, arch,... |
via English sense
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | sense | Any of the manners by which living beings... |
| 2 | Middle English | sense | meaning, signification; interpretation |
| 3 | Old French | sens | reason; ability to reason or think |
| 4 | Latin | sēnsus | faculty or power of perceiving; perception, feeling, sensation, sense |
| 5 | Dutch | census | a census |
| 6 | Latin | census | census, a registering of the populace and their... |
| 7 | Latin | censeo | I give an opinion; I think, suppose or judge; I... |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | kensēō | to give an opinion |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | kensējō | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱens-éh₁-ye-ti | — |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱens- | to announce, to proclaim; to put in order |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱem- | to cover, conceal; hornless |