Where does “flyswatter” come from?
flyswatter (English) comes from English swatter, from English swat, from English squat, from Middle English squatten, from Old French esquatir, from Old French quatir, from Latin coactire, from Latin coactus — whale, sea monster; abyss.
flyswatter (English): A hand-held device for swatting flies or other...
Definitions
- A hand-held device for swatting flies or other...
Ancestry of “flyswatter”, step by step
flyswatter traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English swatter
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | swatter | Something used to swat with; a flyswatter;... |
| 2 | English | swat | To beat off, as insects; to bat, strike, or hit;... |
| 3 | English | squat | Relatively short or low, and thick or broad;... |
| 4 | Middle English | squatten | to squat |
| 5 | Old French | esquatir | — |
| 6 | Old French | quatir | To press down, flatten |
| 7 | Latin | coactire | press together, force |
| 8 | Latin | coactus | forced, compelled, having been forced; urged,... |
| 9 | Latin | cōgō | to collect, assemble, gather together |
| 10 | Latin | cōn- | Used in compounds to indicate a being or bringing together of several objects |
| 11 | Latin | cum | with, along with; at; -fold |
| 12 | Old Latin | com | Alternative form of cum |
| 13 | Proto-Italic | kom | with, along, at |
| 14 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 15 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 16 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 17 | Russian | кит | whale; genitive plural of ки́та |
| 18 | Old Church Slavonic | китъ | whale |
| 19 | Ancient Greek | κῆτος | whale, sea monster; abyss |
via English fly
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | fly | Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by... |
| 2 | Middle English | flien | To fly; to travel in the air; To move in the sky;... |
| 3 | Old English | flēogan | to fly |
| 4 | Old English | -ende | equivalent of English -ing; suffix for present... |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | *-andī | — |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | -andz | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -ónts | Derives nouns denoting body parts |
| 8 | Hungarian | önt | to pour; to cast; accusative singular of ön |
| 9 | Hungarian | ön | you |
| 10 | Hungarian | ön- | self- |
| 11 | Turkish | ön | front |
| 12 | Ottoman Turkish | اوك | voice (of human or animal); sound |
| 13 | Proto-Turkic | ǖn | sound, voice |