Where does “confidential” come from?
Confidential derives from Latin confidentia, from confido meaning to trust, formed with the prefix con- from the root bʰidʰ- meaning to trust or persuade.
confidential (English): Kept, or meant to be kept, secret within a...
Definitions
- Kept, or meant to be kept, secret within a...
Ancestry of “confidential”, step by step
confidential traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via French confidentiel
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | confidentiel | confidential |
| 2 | French | confident | confidant |
| 3 | Italian | confidente | confiding, trusting; confidant or confidante |
| 4 | Latin | cōnfīdēns | confiding (in) |
| 5 | Latin | cōnfīdō | (+ Dative of the person and e + ablative of the thing or in/de + ablative) to be confident or assured of, confide in, believe, trust, place or put confidence in; rely upon |
| 6 | Latin | cōn- | Used in compounds to indicate a being or bringing together of several objects |
| 7 | Latin | cum | with, along with; at; -fold |
| 8 | Old Latin | com | Alternative form of cum |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | kom | with, along, at |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 12 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 13 | German | kitt | putty certain kinds of cement used for fixing e.g. window panes |
| 14 | Old High German | kuti | — |
| 15 | Proto-West Germanic | kwidu | gum, resin |
| 16 | Proto-Germanic | kweduz | resin |
| 17 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷet- | resin, gum; to say, speak |
| 18 | Proto-Indo-European | gū- | to bend; curve; arch; vault; to bow, bend, arch,... |
via Latin cōnfīdentia
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Latin | cōnfīdentia | assurance, confidence |
| 2 | Latin | -ia | Used to form a feminine abstract noun, usually... |
| 3 | Latin | -ius | forming adjectives from nouns; nominative neuter... |
| 4 | Proto-Italic | -jōs | Forms comparative adjectives |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | -yós | Creates adjectives from noun or verb stems |