Where does “impasse” come from?
Impasse comes from French impasse, from French in- and Latin passus, meaning "step" or "passage," literally denoting a passage with no way forward.
impasse (English): a road with no exit; a cul-de-sac; a deadlock or...
Definitions
- a road with no exit; a cul-de-sac; a deadlock or...
Ancestry of “impasse”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | French | impasse | stalemate, impasse; dead-end; cul-de-sac |
| 2 | French | passé | past tense; past; last |
| 3 | French | passer | to go past; to cross; to pass |
| 4 | Middle French | passer | to pass; to go by |
| 5 | Old French | passer | to pass; to pass by |
| 6 | Vulgar Latin | passare | to walk, pass; step, walk, pass; present active... |
| 7 | Latin | passus | spread out; dried; step |
| 8 | Latin | patior | I suffer, endure; I allow, acquiesce, permit,... |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | peh₁- | to hate, hurt |