Where does “trinket” come from?
Trinket derives from Old English trenket, whose original meaning remains unknown.
trinket (English): A small showy ornament or piece of jewelry; A...
Definitions
- A small showy ornament or piece of jewelry; A...
Ancestry of “trinket”, step by step
trinket traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English trink
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | trink | A kind of fishing net that is attached to a post... |
| 2 | Old French | trenche | trench; first-person singular present indicative... |
| 3 | Old French | trenchier | to cut |
| 4 | Vulgar Latin | trinicare | cut into three parts; cut in three parts |
| 5 | Latin | trini | nominative masculine plural of trīnus; genitive... |
| 6 | Latin | tres | three; 3 |
| 7 | English | three | A numerical value after two and before four.... |
| 8 | Middle English | thre | three |
| 9 | Old English | þrī | three |
| 10 | Proto-West Germanic | þrīʀ | three |
| 11 | Proto-Germanic | þrīz | three |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | *tréyes | — |
via French trinquet
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | trinquet | mizzen |
| 2 | Italian | trinchetto | foremast |
| 3 | Latin | triquetrus | triangular, having three corners |
| 4 | Latin | tri- | three, tri- |
| 5 | Latin | trēs | three; 3 |