Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “sparkly” come from?

Sparkly comes from Middle English sparkle with the suffix -y, from Middle French -ie, from Latin -ia ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European -kos.

sparkly (English): giving off sparks, or small flashes of light;...

Definitions

  1. giving off sparks, or small flashes of light;...

Ancestry of “sparkly”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishsparkleA little spark; a scintillation; Brilliance;...
2Middle Englishsparklen—
3Middle Englishsparkel—
4Middle English-el—
5Old French-elSuffix that usually denotes a masculine noun
6Latin-ellusAlternative form of -ulus; "forming masculine...
7Latin-ulusUsed to form a diminutive of a noun, indicating...
8Proto-Italic-olos—
9Proto-Italic-elos—
10Proto-Indo-European-e-lós—
11Proto-Indo-European-lósForms agent nouns from verbal roots

Words derived from “sparkly”

  • sparklies
  • sparkliness
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -lós →