Where does “parasympathetic” come from?
Parasympathetic comes from English parachute and English sympathetic, blending para- from French chute (descent) via Latin parare (to prepare) with sympathetic from Greek sympatheia (fellow-feeling).
parasympathetic (English): Of or relating to the part of the autonomic...
Definitions
- Of or relating to the part of the autonomic...
Ancestry of “parasympathetic”, step by step
parasympathetic traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English Pará
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Pará | A former subunit of currency in several countries in the Ottoman/Turkish and Yugoslav regions |
| 2 | Portuguese | Pará | a state in the North Region of Brazil |
| 3 | Portuguese | Pera | pear |
| 4 | Portuguese | espera | wait |
| 5 | Portuguese | esperar | to wait; to hope; to expect; to anticipate |
| 6 | Old Portuguese | asperar | — |
| 7 | Old Spanish | esperar | to wait for, await |
| 8 | Latin | spērō | to hope, expect |
| 9 | Latin | spes | hope; expectation, anticipation, apprehension |
| 10 | Proto-Italic | spēs | hope |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | spéh₁s | prosperity, success |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | speh₁- | to succeed, to prosper |
via English sympathetic
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | sympathetic | of, related to, showing, or characterized by... |
| 2 | English | pimp | Someone who solicits customers for prostitution... |
| 3 | Proto-Brythonic | pɨmp | five |
| 4 | Proto-Celtic | kʷenkʷe | five |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | pénkʷe | five |