Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “efface” come from?

Efface comes from Middle French effacer, from Old French esfacier, composed of the Latin prefix ex- and facio meaning "to make" or "to do," ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root dʰeh₁-.

efface (English): To erase ; to render illegible or indiscernible;...

Definitions

  1. To erase ; to render illegible or indiscernible;...

Ancestry of “efface”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Frencheffacererase
2Old Frenchesfacierto remove; to delete
3Vulgar Latin*exfaciāre—
4Latinfaciēs—
5Latinfaciō—
6Latin-toriumnominative neuter singular of -tōrius; accusative...
7Latin-tōrius—
8Latin-tor-er
9Proto-Italic-tōr—
10Proto-Indo-European-tōrDerives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone...
11Proto-Indo-European-tor-s—

Words derived from “efface”

  • ineffaceable
  • ineffaceably
  • effacer
  • effaceable
  • uneffaceable
  • effacest
  • effaceth
  • efacar
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tor-s →