Where does “excellent” come from?
Excellent comes from Middle English excellent, from Old French excellent, from Latin excellens, the present participle of excello, derived from the prefix ex- and Latin ex, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European eǵ-.
excellent (English): Having excelled, having surpassed; Of higher or...
Definitions
- Having excelled, having surpassed; Of higher or...
Ancestry of “excellent”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | excellent | — |
| 2 | Old French | excellent | — |
| 3 | Latin | excellēns | elevating, rising |
| 4 | Latin | excello | I elevate, raise up; I rise, elevate myself; I... |
| 5 | Latin | ex- | out, away; throughout; thoroughly |
| 6 | Latin | e | The name of the letter "E"; out of, from |
| 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 | Russian | кит | whale; genitive plural of ки́та |
| 17 | Old Church Slavonic | китъ | whale |
| 18 | Ancient Greek | κῆτος | whale, sea monster; abyss |