Where does “moment” come from?
Moment comes from Middle English moment, from Old French moment, from Latin momentum meaning "movement or impulse," derived from the verb moveo meaning "to move" with the suffix -mentum, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European mew- meaning "to move."
moment (English): A brief, unspecified amount of time; The smallest...
Definitions
- A brief, unspecified amount of time; The smallest...
Ancestry of “moment”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | moment | — |
| 2 | Old French | moment | — |
| 3 | Latin | mōmentum | movement, motion, impulse; course |
| 4 | Latin | mōvimentum | movement |
| 5 | Latin | -mentum | instrument, medium, or result of; e.g.... |
| 6 | Latin | -menta | nominative plural of -mentum; accusative plural... |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -mn̥ | Creates action nouns or result nouns from verbs |