Where does “hesitancy” come from?
Hesitancy comes from English hesitant, from Latin haesitans, from Latin haesito, through the Latin suffix -ia and Ancient Greek -ία, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European -h₂.
hesitancy (English): A pausing or halting before beginning a task,...
Definitions
- A pausing or halting before beginning a task,...
Ancestry of “hesitancy”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Latin | haesitantia | stammering |
| 2 | Latin | haesitans | hesitating, uncertain; remaining fixed in place |
| 3 | Latin | haesitō | to remain fixed in place |
| 4 | Latin | -tito | Forms frequentative verbs from existing verbs |
| 5 | Latin | -ito | Forms frequentative verbs from existing verbs or... |
| 6 | Latin | -tō | Forms here |
| 7 | Latin | -tus | Forms the past participle of verbs; Forms... |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | -tus | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -tus | Derives action nouns from verb roots |