Where does “obsessional” come from?
I need to trace this etymology carefully, but I notice some issues with the provided chain.
The chain shows "English obsession | English aldehyde | Latin -tio" which doesn't make linguistic sense—aldehyde doesn't connect to obsession's etymology, and the chain jumps awkwardly between languages.
Looking at what appears to be the core: obsession comes from Latin obsessio (from obsidēre, "to besiege"), which combines Latin ob- ("against") + sedēre ("to sit"). The chain mentions Proto-Indo-European sed- (the root for "sit") and Ancient Greek βέλος ("missile/dart"), but βέλος doesn't fit the obsession etymological line.
Given the contradictions and unclear relationships in the chain provided, I cannot write an accurate one-sentence summary that names "every language in the chain in order" as given, since the chain itself appears corru
obsessional (English): Marked by obsession
Ancestry of “obsessional”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | obsession | A compulsive or irrational preoccupation; An... |
| 2 | Latin | obsessiō | — |
| 3 | Latin | obsidere | present active infinitive of obsideō;... |
| 4 | Latin | obsideo | I sit, remain, abide, stay; I frequent, haunt,... |
| 5 | Latin | ob- | towards; against |
| 6 | Latin | obolus | obolus |
| 7 | Ancient Greek | ὀβολός | obol, obolus, used at Athens as both a weight and... |
| 8 | Ancient Greek | ὀβελός | a spit, rod; a horizontal line |
| 9 | Ancient Greek | βέλος | missile, arrow, dart; weapon; something quickly... |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷélHos | — |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷelH- | to throw, reach, pierce; to hit by throwing |
Words derived from “obsessional”