Where does “fess” come from?
Fess comes from Old French fesse, from Latin fascia meaning "band" or "stripe," ultimately from the prefix con- combined with Latin roots meaning "to acknowledge."
fess (English): To confess; to admit; A horizontal band across...
Definitions
- To confess; to admit; A horizontal band across...
Ancestry of “fess”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | confess | To admit to the truth, particularly in the... |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman | confesser | to confess; to promise; to swear |
| 3 | Old French | confesser | to confess; to promise; to swear |
| 4 | Latin | cōnfessus | having confessed, acknowledged |
| 5 | Latin | cōnfiteor | to confess, admit |
| 6 | Latin | cōn- | Used in compounds to indicate a being or bringing together of several objects |
| 7 | Latin | cum | with, along with; at; -fold |
| 8 | Old Latin | com | Alternative form of cum |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | kom | with, along, at |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 12 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 13 | German | kitt | putty certain kinds of cement used for fixing e.g. window panes |
| 14 | Old High German | kuti | — |
| 15 | Proto-West Germanic | kwidu | gum, resin |
| 16 | Proto-Germanic | kweduz | resin |
| 17 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷet- | resin, gum; to say, speak |
| 18 | Proto-Indo-European | gū- | to bend; curve; arch; vault; to bow, bend, arch,... |