Where does “mummification” come from?
Mummification derives from English mummy plus the suffix -ification, which comes from Old French -ification, while mummy itself traces through Middle French momie and Medieval Latin mumia to Arabic مُومِيَاء, ultimately from Persian موم meaning wax.
mummification (English): The preserving of a dead body, by making it into...
Definitions
- The preserving of a dead body, by making it into...
Ancestry of “mummification”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | mummify | To make into a mummy, by preserving a dead body;... |
| 2 | English | -ify | To produce verbs meaning "to make" |
| 3 | Middle English | -ifien | — |
| 4 | Old French | -ifier | — |
| 5 | Latin | -ifico | Enlarged form of of -ficō; dative masculine... |
| 6 | Latin | -fico | Forms factitive, causative, or other verbs from... |
| 7 | Latin | facio | I do; I make, construct, fashion, frame, build,... |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | fakjō | to make |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | *θakjō | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | *dʰh₁k-yé-ti | — |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | dʰeh₁- | to do, put, place |