Where does “impoverish” come from?

Impoverish comes from Middle English impoverishen, from Old French empoverir, composed of the prefix en- and Old French poverir, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European roots meaning "not" and "in."

impoverish (English): To make poor; To weaken in quality; to deprive of...

Definitions

  1. To make poor; To weaken in quality; to deprive of...

Ancestry of “impoverish”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle EnglishempoverishenTo impoverish, to make poor
2Old Frenchempoverir—
3Old Frenchen-en- in; into
4Latinīn-un-, non-, not
5Latinînin, at, on, upon, from (space)
6Latinenlookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ
7Proto-Italicenin
8Proto-Indo-Europeanh₁énin

Words derived from “impoverish”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European h₁én →Every word from Latin īn- →Every word from Proto-Italic en →