Where does “happiest” come from?
Happiest comes from English happy, from Middle English happy and happen, from Old Norse heppinn and happa meaning chance or fortune, from Proto-Germanic hampijaną and the suffix -janą, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European kob-.
happiest (English): superlative form of happy: most happy
Definitions
- superlative form of happy: most happy
Ancestry of “happiest”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | happy | Having a feeling arising from a consciousness of... |
| 2 | Middle English | happy | fortunate, happy |
| 3 | Middle English | -y | Designates an adjective, in many cases formed by... |
| 4 | Old English | -iġ | -y, -ic |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | -g | Forms adjectives from nouns and verbs with a... |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | -gaz | -y |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -ḱos | -y, -ic |