Where does “playful” come from?
Playful derives from Middle English pleiful, from Middle English pleye (to play), from Old English pleġan, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European pleh₁-, with the suffix -fullaz from Proto-Germanic fullaz meaning full.
playful (English): liking play, prone to play frequently, such as a...
Definitions
- liking play, prone to play frequently, such as a...
Ancestry of “playful”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | pleiful | playful, joyous |
| 2 | Middle English | pleye | Happiness, mirth, jolliness, or gaiety; Fun,... |
| 3 | Old English | pleġa | exercise |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | plegō | care; an exercise; a game |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | -ō | Creates adverbs from adjectives; Creates agent... |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | -ô | -ly; Forms agent nouns, often from the zero-grade... |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -ō | Derives nouns from roots |