Where does “deceive” come from?
Deceive comes from Middle English deceyven, from Old French decevoir, from Latin decipere meaning "to ensnare or catch," ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European root keh₂p- meaning "to seize."
deceive (English): To trick or mislead
Ancestry of “deceive”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | deceyven | — |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman | deceivre | — |
| 3 | Latin | dēcipiō | — |
| 4 | Latin | dē- | — |
| 5 | Latin | dē | — |
| 6 | Latin | post | behind; after, since, besides, except; behind,... |
| 7 | Latin | poste | ablative singular of postis |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | posti | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | pósti | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | pós | afterwards, post; by, at |
Words derived from “deceive”