Where does “mendacious” come from?
Mendacious comes from Middle French mendacieux, formed with the Middle French suffix -eux from Latin -ium and Latin -osus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European -yós.
mendacious (English): Lying, untruthful or dishonest; False or untrue
Definitions
- Lying, untruthful or dishonest; False or untrue
Ancestry of “mendacious”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle French | mendacieux | false, especially in a way intending to deceive |
| 2 | Latin | mendācium | A lie, untruth, falsehood, fiction |
| 3 | Latin | mendax | deceitful, lying, deceptive, untruthful, false,... |
| 4 | Latin | -āx | ish, -y |
| 5 | Latin | -ium | Suffix used to form abstract nouns, sometimes... |
| 6 | Latin | -ius | forming adjectives from nouns; nominative neuter... |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | -jōs | Forms comparative adjectives |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -yós | Creates adjectives from noun or verb stems |