Where does “sunless” come from?
Sunless derives from English sun plus the suffix -less, with sun tracing back through Old English synn and Proto-Germanic sunnǭ to Proto-Indo-European roots related to shining or heat.
sunless (English): Without the sun or sunshine; shaded; shadowed;...
Definitions
- Without the sun or sunshine; shaded; shadowed;...
Ancestry of “sunless”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | -less | (something); without (something). Added usually to a noun to form an adjective signifying a lack of that noun |
| 2 | Middle English | -les | Lacking (something); without (something) |
| 3 | Turkish | -le | with, shortened form of ile; by, shortened form... |
| 4 | Turkish | ile | with; and |
| 5 | Ottoman Turkish | ایله | by |
| 6 | Old Anatolian Turkish | اِیلَه | — |
| 7 | Proto-Turkic | bile | with, together, also |