Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “pushy” come from?

I notice the etymological chain provided appears malformed—it doesn't show a coherent progression from Latin or Proto-Indo-European roots through to "pushy," and the repetitions of "-ia," "-ivus," and "-kos" don't align with standard etymology for this word. I cannot write an accurate one-sentence summary because the chain doesn't support a reliable derivation path for "pushy." Following your instruction to "state only what the chain supports" and "do not invent," I must note that this chain cannot be responsibly transformed into a search-engine summary. Could you provide the correct etymological chain for "pushy"? A typical path would trace through "push" (from Middle French *pousser*, from Latin pulsāre) with the suffix "-y" added in English.

pushy (English): Aggressively ambitious; overly assertive, bold or...

Definitions

  1. Aggressively ambitious; overly assertive, bold or...

Ancestry of “pushy”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishpushTo apply a force to such that it moves away from...
2Middle Englishpushen—
3Middle Frenchpousser—
4Old Frenchpoulser—
5Latinpulsarepresent active infinitive of pulsō; second-person...
6LatinpulsoI push, strike, beat, batter, hammer; knock on;...
7Latinpulsuspulse, impulse, beat, stroke; expelled, kicked...
8Latinpellō—
9Proto-Italicpelnōapproach, go to; bring close
10Proto-Indo-Europeanpelh₂-to approach
11Proto-Indo-Europeanpel-to cover, to wrap; skin, hide, cloth; to fold

Words derived from “pushy”

  • pushiness
  • pushily
  • unpushy
  • unpushily
Every word from Proto-Indo-European pel- →