Where does “sustainable” come from?
Sustainable comes from Middle English -able, Old French -able, and Latin -abilis, ultimately from Latin teneo meaning "to hold" combined with Latin sub meaning "under."
sustainable (English): Able to be sustained; Able to be produced or...
Definitions
- Able to be sustained; Able to be produced or...
Ancestry of “sustainable”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | sustain | To maintain, or keep in existence; To provide for... |
| 2 | Middle English | susteinen | — |
| 3 | Old French | sustenir | to hold up; to support; to support; to sustain |
| 4 | Vulgar Latin | sustenire | — |
| 5 | Latin | sustineo | I hold up or upright, uphold, keep up, bear up,... |
| 6 | Latin | sub- | sub- |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | upó | under, below |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | h₃ewp- | — |
Words derived from “sustainable”