Where does “effortlessly” come from?
Effortlessly derives from English effort plus the Old English suffix -lēas meaning without, with effort itself from Middle French effort, ultimately tracing through Proto-Germanic galīkaz and Proto-Indo-European līg- to Latin ex.
effortlessly (English): Without effort; without difficulty or struggle
Definitions
- Without effort; without difficulty or struggle
Ancestry of “effortlessly”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | effortless | Without effort |
| 2 | English | effort | The work involved in performing an activity;... |
| 3 | Middle French | effort | strength; might; force; unit; division |
| 4 | Old French | esfort | strength; might |
| 5 | Old French | esforcier | to try; to make a large effort; to use force; to... |
| 6 | Vulgar Latin | exfortio | I strain, strive |
| 7 | Latin | ex | A name of the letter "X"; out of, from |
| 8 | Latin | commūnicō | to impart, share |
| 9 | Latin | commūnis | common, commonplace, ordinary, general, universal, shared, shared alike, of both sides, belonging to two or more together |
| 10 | Old Latin | com(m)oinis | — |
| 11 | Proto-Italic | kommoinis | common |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱom-moy-ni- | held in common |
| 13 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 14 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 15 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 16 | German | kitt | putty certain kinds of cement used for fixing e.g. window panes |
| 17 | Old High German | kuti | — |
| 18 | Proto-West Germanic | kwidu | gum, resin |
| 19 | Proto-Germanic | kweduz | resin |
| 20 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷet- | resin, gum; to say, speak |