Where does “severity” come from?
Severity comes from English severe, from Latin severus, combined with the Latin -itas suffix deriving from Proto-Indo-European -it-, ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root seǵʰ-.
severity (English): The state of being severe; The degree of...
Definitions
- The state of being severe; The degree of...
Ancestry of “severity”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle French | severite | — |
| 2 | Latin | severitas | seriousness, gravity, sternness, strictness,... |
| 3 | Latin | -tās | ty, -dom, -hood, -ness, -ship |
| 4 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ts | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | -teh₂ | Used to form nouns representing state of being |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -tós | Creates verbal adjectives from verb stems |