Where does “privity” come from?
Privity derives from Old French priveté, a noun meaning privacy or secrecy formed from the adjective privé (private).
privity (English): A divine mystery; something known only to God, or...
Definitions
- A divine mystery; something known only to God, or...
Ancestry of “privity”, step by step
privity traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Old French priveté
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old French | priveté | private matter; private room; privacy |
| 2 | Old French | privé | private |
| 3 | Latin | prīvātus | bereaved, deprived, robbed or stripped of something, having been deprived of something |
| 4 | Latin | prīvō | to bereave, deprive, rob or strip of something |
| 5 | French | ferriprive | Suffering from a deficiency of iron |
| 6 | Latin | ferrum | iron; any tool made of iron; fight, clash |
| 7 | Cornish | -er | Forms masculine agent nouns |
| 8 | English | -er | A person or thing that does an action indicated... |
| 9 | Middle English | -er | agentive suffix; agent noun suffix |
| 10 | Old French | -er | Alternative form of -ier, verbal suffix;... |
| 11 | Latin | -āre | first conjugation |
| 12 | Proto-Italic | -āō | Forms primarily denominative verbs |
| 13 | Proto-Indo-European | -eh₂yéti | Creates iterative/ frequentative/ intensive... |
| 14 | Proto-Indo-European | -yéti | Creates intransitive, often deponent,... |
via Old French privitee
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old French | privitee | — |