Where does “sassafras” come from?

Sassafras comes from Spanish sasafrás, from Latin saxifragus, from Latin frangere meaning "to break," ultimately from Proto-Indo-European bʰreg-.

sassafras (English): A tree of species Sassafras albidum of the...

Definitions

  1. A tree of species Sassafras albidum of the...

Ancestry of “sassafras”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Spanishsasafrássassafras
2Latinsaxifragusstone-crushing, stone-breaking
3Latin-ussuffix forming adjectives from nouns, verbs,...
4Old Latin-osaccusative masculine plural of -us
5Proto-Italic-os
6Proto-Indo-European-ósCreates agent nouns from verb stems, denoting...
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -ósEvery word from Latin -usEvery word from Latin saxifragus