Where does “troublemaker” come from?
Troublemaker combines English trouble with maker, from Old French -er and Latin -arius, ultimately deriving from Proto-Indo-European mag- meaning to knead or fashion.
troublemaker (English): One who causes trouble, especially one who does...
Definitions
- One who causes trouble, especially one who does...
Ancestry of “troublemaker”, step by step
troublemaker traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English trouble
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | trouble | A distressing or dangerous situation; A... |
| 2 | Middle English | trouble | Murky, muddy, turbid, opaque |
| 3 | Old French | troble | turbulent; cloudy; clouded; strife; commotion |
| 4 | Old French | trobler | to trouble; to disrupt; to waylay |
| 5 | Old French | torbler | Alternative form of trobler |
| 6 | Vulgar Latin | turbulo | I disrupt, unsettle, agitate, upset, trouble,... |
| 7 | Latin | turbula | disorderly group, a little crowd or people;... |
| 8 | Latin | turba | stir, disturbance, tumult, uproar, trouble; mob,... |
| 9 | Ancient Greek | τύρβη | disorder, confusion, tumult; poetic rout, revelry |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | twerH- | to enclose, fence in; to grab, seize; to stir |
via English make
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | make | To create; To behave, to act; To tend; to... |
| 2 | Middle English | make | Alternative form of maken; easy |
| 3 | Middle English | maken | To make or create; to have something made |
| 4 | Old English | macian | to make |
| 5 | Emilian | mâcia | spot, stain |
| 6 | Latin | Macula | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | smh₁-tleh₂ | — |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | smeh₁- | smear, rub |