Where does “contentious” come from?
Contentious comes from Middle French contentieux, from Latin contentiosus meaning quarrelsome, derived from contentio meaning strife or dispute, from contendere meaning to strive or contest.
contentious (English): Marked by heated arguments or controversy; Given...
Definitions
- Marked by heated arguments or controversy; Given...
Ancestry of “contentious”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle French | contentieux | — |
| 2 | Latin | contentiosus | contentious, disputatious; headstrong, obstinate,... |
| 3 | Latin | contentio | stretching, tension; competition, rivalry;... |
| 4 | Latin | contendere | third-person plural perfect active indicative of... |
| 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,... |