Where does “liability” come from?
Liability comes from French -ité (a suffix forming nouns of quality or state) combined with a root from Latin ligō, meaning to bind or tie.
liability (English): An obligation, debt or responsibility owed to...
Definitions
- An obligation, debt or responsibility owed to...
Ancestry of “liability”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | -ity | Used to form a noun from an adjective;... |
| 2 | Middle English | -ite | — |
| 3 | Old French | -ité | -ity |
| 4 | Latin | -itās | — |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ts | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -tós | Creates verbal adjectives from verb stems |