Where does “motivator” come from?
Motivator comes from English motivate, derived from Middle French motif and Latin motive, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European -tós, a suffix forming adjectives from verbal roots.
motivator (English): agent noun of motivate; one who motivates
Definitions
- agent noun of motivate; one who motivates
Ancestry of “motivator”, step by step
motivator traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English motivate
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | motivate | To provide someone with an incentive to do... |
| 2 | English | -ate | having the specified thing; characterized by the... |
| 3 | English | -cy | Used to form nouns of state, condition or quality... |
| 4 | Anglo-Norman | -cie | — |
| 5 | Latin | -tia | office, rank |
| 6 | Latin | -ia | Used to form a feminine abstract noun, usually... |
| 7 | Latin | -ius | forming adjectives from nouns; nominative neuter... |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | -jōs | Forms comparative adjectives |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -yós | Creates adjectives from noun or verb stems |
via English ‐or
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | ‐or | Creates an agent noun, often from a verb, indicating a person or object (often machines or parts of them) that do the verb or part of speech with which they are formed |
| 2 | Middle English | -our | — |
| 3 | Old French | -eor | Alternative form of -or |
| 4 | Latin | -ator | -ator, -er; second-person singular future passive... |
| 5 | Latin | -tor | -er |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | -tōr | Forms agent nouns to verb stems |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -tōr | Derives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -tor-s | — |