Where does “granny” come from?
Granny comes from Middle English -y, from Middle French -ie, from Latin -ia, from Latin -ivus, from Latin -ia, from Proto-Indo-European -kos.
granny (English): A grandmother; An elderly woman; A granny knot
Definitions
- A grandmother; An elderly woman; A granny knot
Ancestry of “granny”, step by step
granny traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English grand
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | grand | Of a large size or extent; great; Great in size,... |
| 2 | Middle English | grand | — |
| 3 | Anglo-Norman | graunt | Late Anglo-Norman spelling of grant |
| 4 | Old French | grant | big, large |
| 5 | Old French | -ur | -er, used for form agent nouns |
| 6 | Latin | -or | used to form a third-declension masculine... |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | -ōs | Creates masculine action nouns or result nouns... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -ōs | Creates masculine and feminine action nouns or... |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -oss | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | -os | Creates action nouns or result nouns from verbs;... |
via English grannam
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | grannam | A grandam |