Where does “heinous” come from?
Heinous comes from Old French haineus, from the Old French suffix -us attached to a root, ultimately from Latin -osus, Old Latin -osos, Proto-Italic -owonssos, and Latin -o-wont-to-s.
heinous (English): Totally reprehensible
Ancestry of “heinous”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Old French | haineus | hateful; characterized by hatred; despicable;... |
| 2 | Old French | -us | -ous, used for forming adjectives |
| 3 | Latin | -ōsus | — |
| 4 | Old Latin | -ōssus | — |
Words derived from “heinous”