Where does “playwriting” come from?
Playwriting derives from English play and English write, combining the Middle English verbal suffix -en with Latin placitum, from Latin placere meaning to please or satisfy.
playwriting (English): The writing of plays
Definitions
- The writing of plays
Ancestry of “playwriting”, step by step
playwriting traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English writing
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | writing | Graphism of symbols such as letters that express... |
| 2 | Middle English | writing | — |
| 3 | Old English | wrīting | writing |
| 4 | Old English | wrītan | to incise, engrave; to scratch, carve, write; to... |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | wrītan | to scratch, to carve |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | wrītaną | to scratch, carve; to engrave, inscribe, write |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | wēr- | true |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | wer- | to burn; to cover, heed, notice; squirrel |
via English play
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | play | To act in a manner such that one has fun; to... |
| 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 |