Where does “disease” come from?
Disease comes from Middle English disese, from Anglo-Norman desese, from Old French desaise meaning lack of ease, combining Old French aise with the prefix dis- from Latin, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European roots meaning away or two.
disease (English): An abnormal condition of a human, animal or plant...
Definitions
- An abnormal condition of a human, animal or plant...
Ancestry of “disease”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | disese | — |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman | desese | — |
| 3 | Old French | desaise | disease; deformity; melancholy |
| 4 | Old French | eise | ease |
| 5 | Latin | adiacēns | adjacent, adjoining, neighbouring |
| 6 | Latin | adiaceo | I lie beside, at, near or next to; am adjacent... |
| 7 | Latin | ad- | to; usually prefixed to verbs, in which cases it... |
| 8 | Latin | īn- | un-, non-, not |
| 9 | Latin | în | in, at, on, upon, from (space) |
| 10 | Latin | en | lookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ |
| 11 | Proto-Italic | en | in |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁én | in |