Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “creaky” come from?

Creaky derives from Middle English -y, Middle French -ie, Latin -ia, Latin -ivus, Latin -ia, Proto-Indo-European -kos, Proto-Indo-European -kos through successive morphological developments in these languages.

creaky (English): Tending to creak; Worn down by overuse; decrepit;...

Definitions

  1. Tending to creak; Worn down by overuse; decrepit;...

Ancestry of “creaky”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1English-yAdded to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives...
2Middle English-yDesignates an adjective, in many cases formed by...
3Old English-iġ-y, -ic
4Proto-West Germanic-gForms adjectives from nouns and verbs with a...
5Proto-Germanic-gaz-y
6Proto-Indo-European-ḱos-y, -ic

Words derived from “creaky”

  • creakily
  • creakiness
  • noncreaky
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -ḱos →