Where does “tributary” come from?
Tributary comes from Middle English tributarie, from Latin tributarius, an agent noun formed with the suffix -arius from tributus, the past participle of tribuere, meaning to distribute or assign.
tributary (English): A natural water stream that flows into a larger...
Definitions
- A natural water stream that flows into a larger...
Ancestry of “tributary”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | tributarie | paying tribute |
| 2 | Latin | tribūtārius | tribute |
| 3 | Latin | tributum | tax, tribute; nominative neuter singular of... |
| 4 | Latin | tributus | bestowed; forming tribes; formed by tribes |
| 5 | Latin | tribuō | to grant, bestow, assign, attribute |
| 6 | Latin | tribus | One of the three original tribes of Rome: Ramnes,... |
| 7 | Latin | trēs | three; 3 |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | trēs | three |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | *tréyes | — |