Where does “curtailment” come from?
Curtailment comes from English curtail, from French courtault, ultimately from Latin curtus meaning short, derived from Proto-Indo-European (s)ker-.
curtailment (English): The act of curtailing
Definitions
- The act of curtailing
Ancestry of “curtailment”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | curtail | To cut short the tail of an animal; To shorten or... |
| 2 | English | curtal | A variety of short-barrelled cannon; An early... |
| 3 | French | courtault | — |
| 4 | French | court | short; third-person singular present indicative... |
| 5 | English | court | An enclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area... |
| 6 | Middle English | court | A courtyard; an enclosed space |
| 7 | Old French | cort | court |
| 8 | Latin | cōrs | — |
| 9 | Latin | cohors | a court; a farmyard or enclosure; a retinue or... |
| 10 | Latin | co- | allomorph of con- |
| 11 | Latin | cōn- | Used in compounds to indicate a being or bringing together of several objects |
| 12 | Latin | cum | with, along with; at; -fold |
| 13 | Old Latin | com | Alternative form of cum |
| 14 | Proto-Italic | kom | with, along, at |
| 15 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 16 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 17 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 18 | Russian | кит | whale; genitive plural of ки́та |
| 19 | Old Church Slavonic | китъ | whale |
| 20 | Ancient Greek | κῆτος | whale, sea monster; abyss |