Where does “roommate” come from?
Roommate combines English room, from Middle English rome, Old English rūme, Proto-Germanic rūmaz, and Proto-Indo-European roots ḱóm and ḱe, with mate, denoting a person sharing living space.
roommate (English): A person with whom one shares a room, as at...
Definitions
- A person with whom one shares a room, as at...
Ancestry of “roommate”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | -mate | Used to form nouns having the sense of "a comrade or fellow with whom what is denoted by the noun is shared" |
| 2 | English | maté | An evergreen tree, Ilex paraquariensis, native to... |
| 3 | Middle English | mate | mate companion, comrade |
| 4 | Middle Low German | māte | — |
| 5 | Old Saxon | gimato | — |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | gamatjô | — |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | ga- | Indicates association or togetherness; co-;... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 10 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 11 | German | kitt | putty certain kinds of cement used for fixing e.g. window panes |
| 12 | Old High German | kuti | — |
| 13 | Proto-West Germanic | kwidu | gum, resin |
| 14 | Proto-Germanic | kweduz | resin |
| 15 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷet- | resin, gum; to say, speak |