Where does “sue” come from?
Sue descends from Middle English sewen, Old English sīwian, Proto-Germanic siwjaną, and Proto-Indo-European sīw-, whose original meaning remains uncertain.
sue (English): To file a legal action against someone, generally...
Definitions
- To file a legal action against someone, generally...
Ancestry of “sue”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | seuen | — |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman | suer | nominative singular of seror; to dry |
| 3 | Old French | sivre | to follow |
| 4 | Vulgar Latin | sequere | to follow; second-person singular future active... |
| 5 | Latin | sequor | I follow, come or go after |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | sekʷōr | follow, come/go after |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | sékʷetor | to be following |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | sekʷ- | to follow; to see; to say |