Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “profligate” come from?

Profligate comes from Latin profligatus, past participle of profligare, meaning to strike down or destroy, from fligere combined with the prefix pro-.

profligate (English): Inclined to waste resources or behave...

Definitions

  1. Inclined to waste resources or behave...

Ancestry of “profligate”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Latinprōflīgātus—
2Latinprōflīgō—
3Latinprō-—
4Proto-Italic*pro-—
5Proto-Indo-Europeanpro-toward, forward
6Proto-Indo-Europeanpor-to give birth; forward, through; going, passage
7Proto-Indo-Europeanper-before, in front; first; to go through
8Proto-Indo-Europeanpr̥tóspassed , crossed

Words derived from “profligate”

  • profligately
  • profligateness
  • profligatory
  • unprofligate
Every word from Proto-Indo-European pr̥tós →