Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “metaphorical” come from?

metaphorical (English) comes from English metaphoric, from English -ic, from English image, from French image, from Portuguese imagem, from Spanish imagen, from Italian immagine, from Latin imāginem — in.

metaphorical (English): Pertaining to or characterized by a metaphor;...

Definitions

  1. Pertaining to or characterized by a metaphor;...

Ancestry of “metaphorical”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishmetaphoricLike a metaphor
2English-icUsed to form adjectives from nouns with the...
3EnglishimageAn optical or other representation of a real...
4Frenchimagepicture, image; frame; first-person singular...
5Portugueseimagemimage; picture; figure; image; image; face
6Spanishimagenimage
7Italianimmagineimage; imago
8Latinimāginem—
9Latinim-Alternative form of in-; form of "in"; in
10Latinīn-—
11Latinîn—
12Latinenlookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ
13Proto-Italicenin
14Proto-Indo-Europeanh₁énin

Words derived from “metaphorical”

  • metaphorically
  • nonmetaphorical
  • unmetaphorical
  • unmetaphorically
  • antimetaphorical
  • metaphoricalness
  • multimetaphorical
  • hypermetaphorical
Every word from Proto-Indo-European h₁én →