Where does “spicy” come from?

Spicy comes from Middle English via the -y suffix added to spice, which derives from Middle French -ie, Latin -ia, Latin -ivus, and ultimately Proto-Indo-European -kos.

spicy (English): Of, pertaining to, or containing spice; Provoking...

Definitions

  1. Of, pertaining to, or containing spice; Provoking...

Ancestry of “spicy”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1English-yAdded to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives...
2Middle English-yDesignates an adjective, in many cases formed by...
3Old English-iġ-y, -ic
4Proto-West Germanic-gForms adjectives from nouns and verbs with a...
5Proto-Germanic-gaz-y
6Proto-Indo-European-ḱos-y, -ic

Words derived from “spicy”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European -ḱos →