Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “sticky” come from?

Sticky comes from Middle English -y, Middle French -ie, Latin -ia, Latin -ivus, and Proto-Indo-European -kos, a suffix forming adjectives.

sticky (English): Able or likely to stick; Potentially difficult to...

Definitions

  1. Able or likely to stick; Potentially difficult to...

Ancestry of “sticky”, 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 “sticky”

  • stickiness
  • stickily
  • nonsticky
  • stickybeak
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -ḱos →