Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “mutual assured destruction” come from?

mutual assured destruction (English) comes from English mutual, from Middle French mutuel, from Latin mūtuus, from Latin muto, from Latin -ium, from Latin -ius, from Proto-Italic -jōs, from Proto-Indo-European -yós — Creates adjectives from noun or verb stems.

mutual assured destruction (English): The threat of massive retaliation using nuclear...

Definitions

  1. The threat of massive retaliation using nuclear...

Ancestry of “mutual assured destruction”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishmutualHaving the same relationship, each to each other;...
2Middle Frenchmutuelmutual
3Latinmūtuus—
4LatinmutoI move, remove; I alter, change, modify,...
5Latin-iumSuffix used to form abstract nouns, sometimes...
6Latin-iusforming adjectives from nouns; nominative neuter...
7Proto-Italic-jōsForms comparative adjectives
8Proto-Indo-European-yósCreates adjectives from noun or verb stems
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -yós →