Where does “kinky” come from?
Kinky derives from English kink plus the suffix -y, which comes from Middle French -ie, from Latin -ia, ultimately tracing to Proto-Indo-European -kos.
kinky (English): Full of kinks; liable to kink or curl; Marked by...
Definitions
- Full of kinks; liable to kink or curl; Marked by...
Ancestry of “kinky”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | kink | To laugh loudly; To gasp for breath as in a... |
| 2 | Middle English | kinken | — |
| 3 | Old English | cincian | — |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | kinkōn | — |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | kinkōną | to laugh loudly, kink |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | ganǵ- | to mock, insult |
Words derived from “kinky”