Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “image” come from?

Image comes from Middle English ymage, from Old French image, from Latin imago meaning a likeness or representation, ultimately from the negative prefix in- and Proto-Indo-European ne meaning not.

image (English): An optical or other representation of a real...

Definitions

  1. An optical or other representation of a real...

Ancestry of “image”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Frenchimagepicture, image; frame; first-person singular...
2Portugueseimagemimage; picture; figure; image; image; face
3Spanishimagenimage
4Italianimmagineimage; imago
5Latinimāginem—
6Latinim-Alternative form of in-; form of "in"; in
7Latinīn-—
8Latinîn—
9Latinenlookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ
10Proto-Italicenin
11Proto-Indo-Europeanh₁énin

Words derived from “image”

  • imagistic
  • imagen
  • afterimage
  • imageless
  • imagist
  • preimage
  • subimage
  • imagism
  • imageability
  • imageable
  • imagistically
  • counterimage
  • imagesetter
  • reimage
  • nonimage
  • orthoimage
  • imagemaker
  • neuroimage
  • eigenimage
  • imagelike
  • holoimage
  • unimageable
  • microimage
  • macroimage
Every word from Proto-Indo-European h₁én →