Where does “defeat” come from?
Defeat comes from Middle English defeten, from Old French desfait, the past participle of desfaire meaning to undo or destroy.
defeat (English): To overcome in battle or contest; To reduce, to...
Definitions
- To overcome in battle or contest; To reduce, to...
Ancestry of “defeat”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | defeten | — |
| 2 | Middle English | defet | defect; disfigured |
| 3 | French | deffet | — |
| 4 | Old French | desfait | undone |
| 5 | Old French | desfaire | to undo; to defeat |
| 6 | Old French | faire | to do |
| 7 | Latin | faciō | to do |
| 8 | Latin | -torium | nominative neuter singular of -tōrius; accusative... |
| 9 | Latin | -tōrius | ory |
| 10 | Latin | -tor | -er |
| 11 | Proto-Italic | -tōr | Forms agent nouns to verb stems |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | -tōr | Derives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone... |
| 13 | Proto-Indo-European | -tor-s | — |