Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “pair” come from?

Pair comes from Middle English paire, from Old French paire, from Latin paria, the neuter plural of par meaning equal or matched.

pair (English): Two similar or identical things taken together;...

Definitions

  1. Two similar or identical things taken together;...

Ancestry of “pair”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle EnglishpaireA pair; a group of two similar, identical, or...
2Old Frenchpaire—
3Latinparianominative neuter plural of pār; accusative...
4Latinpareven; equal; like
5Proto-Indo-Europeanperaround; through

Words derived from “pair”

  • pairing
  • pairwise
  • unpaired
  • dispair
  • extrapair
  • keypair
  • overpair
  • mispair
  • stereopair
  • pairwork
  • eigenpair
  • nonpairwise
  • intrapair
  • pairwisely
  • unpair
  • depairing
  • pairbreaking
  • multipair
  • nonpairing
  • interpair
  • underpair
  • pairer
  • pairable
  • rarepair
Every word from Proto-Indo-European per →