Where does “unnerve” come from?
I need to work through this chain carefully, but I notice several issues:
1. The chain shows "Latin unus" (meaning "one") but the headword is "unnerve" not "one"
2. "Latin nervus" means "nerve/sinew" which actually connects to "unnerve"
3. The chain appears corrupted or incorrectly ordered - it jumps from Latin back through multiple PIE roots without clear connection
4. The PIE roots listed (óynos, ano-, ne, h₂ent-) don't form a coherent chain to "nervus"
The chain as given doesn't support a reliable etymology for "unnerve." A legitimate chain would trace: English unnerve → un- + nerve → nerve from Latin nervus (sinew/nerve) → PIE *h₂ent- (to stretch). But the provided chain contradicts this by inser
unnerve (English): To deprive of nerve, force, or strength; to...
Definitions
- To deprive of nerve, force, or strength; to...
Ancestry of “unnerve”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | Un- | — |
| 2 | English | still | Not moving; calm; Not effervescing; not... |
| 3 | Old English | stillan | become calm, abate, subside; calm, pacify,... |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | stillijan | to make still, quiet |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | -jan | Creates denominative verbs from nouns; Creates... |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | -janą | Derives denominatives from nouns and factitives... |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -yéti | Creates intransitive, often deponent,... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | yé- | — |
| 9 | Chichewa | iye | he, she |