Where does “herbivore” come from?
Herbivore comes from French herbivore, combining French herbe from Latin herba meaning "grass" or "plant," with Latin -vorus meaning "eating," both ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European roots gʰreH₁- and -ós.
herbivore (English): An organism that feeds chiefly on plants; an...
Definitions
- An organism that feeds chiefly on plants; an...
Ancestry of “herbivore”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | herbivore | herbivorous; herbivore |
| 2 | New Latin | herbivorus | — |
| 3 | Latin | -vorus | -eating, -devouring |
| 4 | Latin | -us | suffix forming adjectives from nouns, verbs,... |
| 5 | Old Latin | -os | accusative masculine plural of -us |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | -os | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -ós | Creates agent nouns from verb stems, denoting... |