Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “soloist” come from?

Soloist comes from English solo plus the suffix -ista from Latin, ultimately from Latin solus meaning alone, derived from Proto-Indo-European swol-.

soloist (English): A person who performs a solo

Definitions

  1. A person who performs a solo

Ancestry of “soloist”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1English-istAdded to words to form nouns denoting
2Old French-iste—
3Latin-ista-ist; one who practises or believes
4Ancient Greek-ιστήςAlternative form of -τής; -ist
5Ancient Greek-τήςAppended to verbs to form agent nouns
6Proto-Hellenic-tās—

Words derived from “soloist”

  • soloistic
  • demisoloist
Every word from Proto-Hellenic -tās →