Where does “sprinter” come from?
Sprinter comes from English sprint plus the agent noun suffix -er, with sprint itself deriving from Old French -er and Latin -are, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European sper- meaning to move rapidly or scatter.
sprinter (English): One who sprints; Transition period between winter...
Definitions
- One who sprints; Transition period between winter...
Ancestry of “sprinter”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | sprint | A short race at top speed; A burst of speed or... |
| 2 | English | sprent | To leap; bound; move quickly; dart; simple past... |
| 3 | Middle English | sprengen | to sprinkle |
| 4 | Old English | sprengan | to scatter something; to sprinkle something; to... |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | *sprangijan | to cause to spring out |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | sprangijaną | to cause to spring; to cause to burst, to blow up |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | -janą | Derives denominatives from nouns and factitives... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -yéti | Creates intransitive, often deponent,... |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | yé- | — |
| 10 | Chichewa | iye | he, she |