Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “tactile” come from?

Tactile comes from Middle French tactile, from Latin tactilis meaning "able to be touched," derived from Latin tangere meaning "to touch," from Proto-Indo-European teh₂g-.

tactile (English): Tangible; perceptible to the sense of touch; Used...

Definitions

  1. Tangible; perceptible to the sense of touch; Used...

Ancestry of “tactile”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Frenchtactile—
2Latintactilistangible
3Latintāctus—
4Latin-tusForms the past participle of verbs; Forms...
5Proto-Italic-tus—
6Proto-Indo-European-tusDerives action nouns from verb roots

Words derived from “tactile”

  • vibrotactile
  • tactility
  • tactilely
  • electrotactile
  • visuotactile
  • nontactile
  • untactile
  • pedotactile
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tus →