Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “porous” come from?

Porous comes from Old French poros, from Latin porus, from Ancient Greek πόρος meaning a passage or pore.

porous (English): Full of tiny pores that allow fluids or gasses to...

Definitions

  1. Full of tiny pores that allow fluids or gasses to...

Ancestry of “porous”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchporos—
2Latinporuspore, passage in the body; tufa
3Ancient Greekπόροςa means of passage, passageway, way, opening;...
4Ancient GreekπείρωI pierce, run through; I cleave through
5Proto-Hellenic*péryō—

Words derived from “porous”

  • mesoporous
  • microporous
  • nonporous
  • nanoporous
  • macroporous
  • porousness
  • multiporous
  • porously
  • ultramicroporous
  • imporous
  • polyporous
  • nonmicroporous
  • unporous
  • hyperporous
  • pseudoporous
  • nonporousness
  • nonmacroporous
Every word from Proto-Hellenic *péryō →