Where does “elevator” come from?
Elevator comes from English elevate, from Latin elevatus, the past participle of elevare meaning "to lift up," from Latin ex- "out" and a root meaning "to lighten" traceable to Proto-Indo-European h₁lengʷʰ-.
elevator (English): Anything that raises or uplifts; A permanent...
Definitions
- Anything that raises or uplifts; A permanent...
Ancestry of “elevator”, step by step
elevator traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English ‐or
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | ‐or | Creates an agent noun, often from a verb, indicating a person or object (often machines or parts of them) that do the verb or part of speech with which they are formed |
| 2 | Middle English | -our | — |
| 3 | Old French | -eor | Alternative form of -or |
| 4 | Latin | -ator | -ator, -er; second-person singular future passive... |
| 5 | Latin | -tor | -er |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | -tōr | Forms agent nouns to verb stems |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -tōr | Derives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -tor-s | — |