Where does “fearsome” come from?

Fearsome derives from English fear and English some, tracing back through Proto-Indo-European tewh₂-, per-, and sem-, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European pr̥tós.

fearsome (English): frightening, especially in appearance; fearful,...

Definitions

  1. frightening, especially in appearance; fearful,...

Ancestry of “fearsome”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1English-someCharacterized by some specific condition or...
2Middle English-somsome; having a specific quality
3Old Englishsumsome
4Proto-West Germanic*sumsome
5Proto-Germanicsumazsome (one), a certain (one)
6Proto-Indo-Europeansem-together, one

Words derived from “fearsome”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European sem- →