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

  1. The crime of deliberately killing another person...

Ancestry of “murder”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishmurder—
2Middle Englishmurthremurder
3Old Englishmorþormurder; great sin or crime, enormity
4Proto-Germanicmurþrąmurder
5Proto-Indo-Europeanmrtro-murder, death; killing
6Proto-Indo-Europeanmer-to die; to disappear; sea, lake, wetland

Words derived from “murder”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European mer- →