Where does “employ” come from?
Employ comes from Middle French employer, derived from Latin implicare, meaning to involve or entwine, from the prefix in- combined with a root traced to Proto-Indo-European ne.
employ (English): The state of being an employee; employment; The...
Definitions
- The state of being an employee; employment; The...
Ancestry of “employ”, step by step
employ traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via French emploi
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | emploi | job; employment; use; need |
| 2 | French | employer | to employ |
| 3 | Middle French | employer | to employ; to use; to make use of |
| 4 | Old French | emploier | Alternative form of emploiier |
| 5 | Latin | implicō | to entangle, entwine |
| 6 | Latin | īn- | un-, non-, not |
| 7 | Latin | în | in, at, on, upon, from (space) |
| 8 | Latin | en | lookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | en | in |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁én | in |