Where does “footprint” come from?
Footprint derives from Middle English fot, Old English fōt, and Proto-Indo-European pṓds, ultimately meaning foot or base, combined with the suffix -en and Latin in-.
footprint (English): The impression of the foot in a soft substance...
Definitions
- The impression of the foot in a soft substance...
Ancestry of “footprint”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | print | Of, relating to, or writing for printed... |
| 2 | Middle English | printen | — |
| 3 | Middle English | emprinten | — |
| 4 | Old French | empreinter | — |
| 5 | Old French | empreindre | — |
| 6 | Latin | imprimere | second-person singular future passive indicative... |
| 7 | Latin | imprimo | I press, impress; I print, imprint, stamp |
| 8 | Latin | īn- | — |
| 9 | Latin | în | — |
| 10 | Latin | en | lookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ |
| 11 | Proto-Italic | en | in |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁én | in |
Words derived from “footprint”