Where does “peerless” come from?
Peerless derives from Middle English perles, formed from Old English -lēas meaning "without," combined with Latin pirum meaning "pear," ultimately tracing to Proto-Indo-European lewH- and suffixes -iskos and -ēs.
peerless (English): Without peer or equal; unparalleled, nonpareil....
Definitions
- Without peer or equal; unparalleled, nonpareil....
Ancestry of “peerless”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | pereles | Peerless, unrivalled; lacking equivalent or... |
| 2 | Middle English | -les | Lacking (something); without (something) |
| 3 | Turkish | -le | with, shortened form of ile; by, shortened form... |
| 4 | Turkish | ile | with; and |
| 5 | Ottoman Turkish | ایله | by |
| 6 | Old Anatolian Turkish | اِیلَه | — |
| 7 | Proto-Turkic | bile | with, together, also |