Where does “obscenity” come from?
Obscenity comes from English obscene plus the French suffix -ité, derived from Latin -itas, which traces to Proto-Indo-European -it-.
obscenity (English): Something that is obscene; An act of obscene...
Definitions
- Something that is obscene; An act of obscene...
Ancestry of “obscenity”, step by step
obscenity traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Latin obscenitas
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Latin | obscenitas | unfavorableness, inauspiciousness; foulness,... |
| 2 | Latin | -tās | ty, -dom, -hood, -ness, -ship |
| 3 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ts | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 4 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | -tós | Creates verbal adjectives from verb stems |