Where does “sneaker” come from?
Sneaker comes from English sneak with the agent suffix -er, ultimately tracing through Old French -er, Latin -āre (infinitive marker), Latin -ārius (agentive suffix meaning "one who"), and Proto-Italic -os.
sneaker (English): One who sneaks; An athletic shoe with a soft,...
Definitions
- One who sneaks; An athletic shoe with a soft,...
Ancestry of “sneaker”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | sneak | One who sneaks; one who moves stealthily to... |
| 2 | Middle English | sniken | to creep, crawl |
| 3 | Old English | snīcan | to creep, crawl; to creep; crawl |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | snīkan | to crawl; to creep |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | snīkaną | to crawl; to creep |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | sneyg- | to crawl |
Words derived from “sneaker”