Where does “novelist” come from?
Novelist derives from English novel plus the suffix -ista from Latin, which comes from Latin novus meaning new, from Proto-Indo-European néwos, ultimately from the root gʷeih₃w-.
novelist (English): An author of novels; An innovator; one who...
Definitions
- An author of novels; An innovator; one who...
Ancestry of “novelist”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | novel | Newly made, formed or evolved; having no... |
| 2 | Italian | novella | feminine singular of novello; tale, story, short... |
| 3 | Latin | novella | a newly planted vine or shoot; nominative... |
| 4 | Latin | novellus | new, young, fresh; novel, newly made |
| 5 | Latin | -ellus | Alternative form of -ulus; "forming masculine... |
| 6 | Latin | -ulus | Used to form a diminutive of a noun, indicating... |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | -olos | — |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | -elos | Forms desubstantival and deadjectival diminutive nouns |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -e-lós | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | -lós | Forms agent nouns from verbal roots |