Where does “credulity” come from?
Credulity comes from Old French credulité, from Latin credulitas, a noun formation using the Latin suffix -tas added to credulus, ultimately deriving from the Proto-Indo-European root dʰeh₁- meaning to place or put.
credulity (English): A willingness to believe in someone or something...
Definitions
- A willingness to believe in someone or something...
Ancestry of “credulity”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old French | credulité | — |
| 2 | Latin | credulitas | credulity, easiness of belief |
| 3 | Latin | crēdulus | that easily believes a thing, easy of belief |
| 4 | Latin | -ulus | Used to form a diminutive of a noun, indicating... |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | -olos | — |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | -elos | Forms desubstantival and deadjectival diminutive nouns |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -e-lós | — |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -lós | Forms agent nouns from verbal roots |