Where does “encourage” come from?
Encourage comes from Middle English encouragen, from Old French encoragier, formed with the prefix en- and the suffix -are derived from Latin -arius, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ne.
encourage (English): To mentally support; to motivate, give courage,...
Definitions
- To mentally support; to motivate, give courage,...
Ancestry of “encourage”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | encouragen | — |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman | encoragier | to encourage |
| 3 | Old French | encoragier | to encourage |
| 4 | Old French | en- | en- in; into |
| 5 | Latin | īn- | un-, non-, not |
| 6 | Latin | în | in, at, on, upon, from (space) |
| 7 | Latin | en | lookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | en | in |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁én | in |