Where does “lawgiver” come from?
Lawgiver combines English law, from Middle English lawe, Old English hlāw, Old Norse lǫg, tracing through Proto-Indo-European lakw-, ḱley-, and ḱel- meaning to lay or place, with the agent noun giver.
lawgiver (English): One who provides laws to a society; Any lawmaker
Definitions
- One who provides laws to a society; Any lawmaker
Ancestry of “lawgiver”, step by step
lawgiver traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English Law
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Law | perhaps originally meaning someone who lives near a burial mound |
| 2 | English | speaker | One who speaks; Loudspeaker; Speakerphone |
| 3 | English | -ine | Of or pertaining to; Used to form demonyms;... |
| 4 | French | -ine | feminine singular of -in; female equivalent of... |
| 5 | French | -é | past participle root verb suffix of regular -er... |
| 6 | Middle French | -é | past participle root verb suffix of regular; -ed, -en, -n |
| 7 | Old French | -é | used to form past participles of regular -er... |
| 8 | Latin | -a | suffixed to the roots of verbs, forms agent... |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | -ā | Forms masculine agent nouns from prefixed or compounded bases |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | -éh₂ | — |