Where does “property” come from?
Property derives from Middle English propertee, from Old French proprieté, from Latin proprietas, ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root meaning "one's own" through Latin proprius and its adjectival suffix formations.
property (English): Something that is owned; A piece of real estate,...
Definitions
- Something that is owned; A piece of real estate,...
Ancestry of “property”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | propertee | — |
| 2 | Old French | propreté | ownership; property |
| 3 | Latin | proprietās | quality, property, peculiarity, character |
| 4 | Latin | -tās | ty, -dom, -hood, -ness, -ship |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ts | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -tós | Creates verbal adjectives from verb stems |