Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “lancet” come from?

Lancet comes from Old French lancete, diminutive of Old French lance, from Latin lancea, with the diminutive suffix deriving from Latin -itas and Proto-Indo-European -it-.

lancet (English): A sharp, pointed, two-edged surgical instrument...

Definitions

  1. A sharp, pointed, two-edged surgical instrument...

Ancestry of “lancet”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1FrenchlancetteA lancet, a sharp pointed medical instrument; A...
2Old Frenchlancetesmall lance; lancet
3Old French-etévariant of -té
4Latin-ittusdiminutive suffix, used to create nouns
5Proto-Italic-tosCreates verbal adjectives from verb stems
6Proto-Indo-European-tósCreates verbal adjectives from verb stems

Words derived from “lancet”

  • lancetfish
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tós →