Where does “hometown” come from?
Hometown derives from English home and the suffix -town, with home tracing to Middle English home, Old English hām, and Proto-Indo-European kem-, meaning village or home.
hometown (English): An individual’s place of birth, childhood home,...
Definitions
- An individual’s place of birth, childhood home,...
Ancestry of “hometown”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | town | A settlement; an area with residential districts,... |
| 2 | English | Freetown | — |
| 3 | English | free | Unconstrained; Obtainable without any payment;... |
| 4 | Middle English | free | — |
| 5 | Old English | frēo | free, joyful |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | *frī | — |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | frijaz | free |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | priHós | dear, beloved; happy, free |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | preyH- | to love, to please |
Words derived from “hometown”