Where does “cruelty” come from?
Cruelty comes from Middle English cruelte, from Old French cruauté, from Latin crudelitas, derived from the root krewh₂- meaning raw or bloody in Proto-Indo-European.
cruelty (English): An indifference to suffering or pleasure in...
Definitions
- An indifference to suffering or pleasure in...
Ancestry of “cruelty”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | cruelte | The state of being cruel; cruelness, cruelty,... |
| 2 | Old French | cruauté | cruelty |
| 3 | Vulgar Latin | crudalitas | — |
| 4 | Latin | crudelitas | cruelty, severity |
| 5 | Latin | -tās | ty, -dom, -hood, -ness, -ship |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ts | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -tós | Creates verbal adjectives from verb stems |