Where does “smelt” come from?
Smelt comes from Old English smelt, from Old English smæl, from Proto-Indo-European (s)meld-, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European (s)mel-.
smelt (English): Any small anadromous fish of the family...
Definitions
- Any small anadromous fish of the family...
Ancestry of “smelt”, step by step
smelt traces back through 3 separate lines of ancestry.
via Dutch smelten
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dutch | smelten | to melt; to smelt |
| 2 | Dutch | punt | point; The terminal point of something; dot |
| 3 | French | point | point; full stop, period; stitch pattern |
| 4 | Middle French | poinct | point; not |
| 5 | Old French | point | a sting; a prick; moment; time; dot |
| 6 | Latin | pūnctum | point |
| 7 | Latin | punctus | pricked, punctured, pierced, having been pricked;... |
| 8 | Latin | -tus | Forms the past participle of verbs; Forms... |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | -tus | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | -tus | Derives action nouns from verb roots |
via Middle English smelt
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | smelt | smelt fish |
| 2 | Old English | smelt | smelt a fish |
| 3 | Proto-West Germanic | *smelt | smelt |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | smeltaz | smelt |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | smeltaną | to melt |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | (s)meld- | to soften, to melt |
via Middle Low German smelten
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle Low German | smelten | to melt |