Where does “honorary” come from?
Honorary derives from Latin -arius and -alis, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European -li-, suffixes that formed adjectives indicating relation or belonging.
honorary (English): Given as an honor/honour, with no duties...
Definitions
- Given as an honor/honour, with no duties...
Ancestry of “honorary”, step by step
honorary traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English Honor
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Honor | of importance or value; respect; veneration of someone, usually for being morally upright or successful |
| 2 | English | Honoria | the Latinized feminine of Honorius |
| 3 | English | Honorius | — |
| 4 | Latin | Honorius | A Roman Emperor, Honorius |
| 5 | Latin | honorus | conferring honour |
| 6 | Latin | -us | suffix forming adjectives from nouns, verbs,... |
| 7 | Old Latin | -os | accusative masculine plural of -us |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | -os | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -ós | Creates agent nouns from verb stems, denoting... |
via Latin honōrārium
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Latin | honōrārium | — |
| 2 | Latin | honorarius | honorary; complimentary |