Where does “creative” come from?
Creative derives from Late Latin creativus, from Latin creatus (past participle of creare, to make or produce) and the agent suffix Latin -or, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ḱer- (to make or grow) with the nominalizing suffix Proto-Indo-European -os.
creative (English): Tending to create things, or having the ability...
Definitions
- Tending to create things, or having the ability...
Ancestry of “creative”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Latin | creativus | creative |
| 2 | Latin | creō | to create, to give existence to, to form, to make, to produce, to originate out of other materials or out of nihility (transitively) |
| 3 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱer- | to grow, to make grow, to nourish; to plait,... |
| 4 | Proto-Indo-European | kr̥- | to turn, to bend |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | ker- | army |