Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “lengthy” come from?

Lengthy comes from Middle English -y, Middle French -ie, Latin -ia, Latin -ivus, Latin -ia, and Proto-Indo-European -kos, a suffix formation expressing quality or state.

lengthy (English): Having length; long and overextended, especially...

Definitions

  1. Having length; long and overextended, especially...

Ancestry of “lengthy”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1English-yAdded to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives...
2Middle English-yDesignates an adjective, in many cases formed by...
3Old English-iġ-y, -ic
4Proto-West Germanic-gForms adjectives from nouns and verbs with a...
5Proto-Germanic-gaz-y
6Proto-Indo-European-ḱos-y, -ic

Words derived from “lengthy”

  • lengthily
  • lengthiness
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -ḱos →