Where does “futility” come from?
Futility comes from Middle French futilité, from Latin futilitātem, from futilis meaning "worthless," derived from the Proto-Indo-European root ǵʰew- meaning "to pour."
futility (English): The quality of being futile or useless;...
Definitions
- The quality of being futile or useless;...
Ancestry of “futility”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Latin | fūtilitās | worthlessness, futility |
| 2 | Latin | -tās | ty, -dom, -hood, -ness, -ship |
| 3 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ts | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 4 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | -tós | Creates verbal adjectives from verb stems |