Where does “conscientious” come from?
Conscientious comes from Middle French conscientieux, from Latin conscientiosus, derived from Latin conscientia meaning awareness or knowledge of one's own thoughts, ultimately formed from Latin cum meaning with and the abstract noun suffix -ia.
conscientious (English): Thorough, careful, or vigilant in one’s task...
Definitions
- Thorough, careful, or vigilant in one’s task...
Ancestry of “conscientious”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle French | conscientieux | conscientious |
| 2 | Latin | cōnscientiōsus | — |
| 3 | Latin | cōnscientia | knowledge shared with others, being in the know or privy to, joint knowledge; complicity |
| 4 | Latin | conscire | present active infinitive of cōnsciō; to know, to... |
| 5 | Latin | com- | allomorph of con- |
| 6 | Latin | con- | Used in compounds to indicate a being or bringing... |
| 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,... |