Where does “murder” come from?
Murder derives from Middle English murthre, from Old English morþor, from Proto-Germanic murþrą, from Proto-Indo-European mrtro-, ultimately from the root mer-.
murder (English): The crime of deliberately killing another person...
Definitions
- The crime of deliberately killing another person...
Ancestry of “murder”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | murder | — |
| 2 | Middle English | murthre | murder |
| 3 | Old English | morþor | murder; great sin or crime, enormity |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | murþrą | murder |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | mrtro- | murder, death; killing |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | mer- | to die; to disappear; sea, lake, wetland |
Words derived from “murder”