Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “deny” come from?

Deny comes from Old French denoier, from Latin denegare, a compound of the prefix de- and Latin negare meaning to say no or refuse.

deny (English): To disallow or reject; To assert that something...

Definitions

  1. To disallow or reject; To assert that something...

Ancestry of “deny”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishdenyen—
2Old Frenchdenoierto deny, to repudiate; to deny, repudiate
3Latindēnegāre—
4Latinnegāre—
5Proto-Indo-Europeannénot; no

Words derived from “deny”

  • denial
  • undeniable
  • undeniably
  • deniability
  • deniable
  • denieth
  • denialist
  • denialism
  • deniest
  • undeniability
  • nondenial
  • deniably
  • indeniable
  • undeniableness
  • deniance
  • indeniably
  • self-denial
  • denialistic
  • nondeniable
Every word from Proto-Indo-European né →