Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “spot” come from?

Spot comes from Middle Dutch spotte, of unknown ultimate origin.

spot (English): A round or irregular patch on the surface of a...

Definitions

  1. A round or irregular patch on the surface of a...

Ancestry of “spot”, 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 “spot”

  • spotlight
  • spotting
  • hotspot
  • spotty
  • sunspot
  • spotter
  • eyespot
  • ringspot
  • nightspot
  • findspot
  • spottiness
  • blindspot
  • checkerspot
  • immunospot
  • blackspot
  • spottily
  • trendspotting
  • bloodspot
  • trainspotter
  • inkspot
  • microspot
  • leafspot
  • microspotting
  • silverspot
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -ḱos →