Where does “unpretentious” come from?
Unpretentious derives from English pretentious, which combines Latin praetendere, from Proto-Indo-European *teneo meaning "to hold," with Latin -osus, an adjective-forming suffix from Proto-Indo-European *ano-.
unpretentious (English): Simple, humble, not pretentious, plain
Definitions
- Simple, humble, not pretentious, plain
Ancestry of “unpretentious”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | pretentious | Intended to impress others; ostentatious; Marked... |
| 2 | French | prétentieux | pretentious |
| 3 | French | prétention | pretentiousness; pretension; claim |
| 4 | French | -tion | Used to indicate action, condition, result or... |
| 5 | Latin | -tiō | — |
| 6 | Latin | dissertātiō | — |
| 7 | Latin | dissertus | arranged, disposed; explained |
| 8 | Latin | disserere | second-person singular future passive indicative... |
| 9 | Latin | dis- | asunder, apart, in two; reversal, removal;... |
| 10 | Latin | calceus | shoe |
| 11 | Latin | calx | limestone; chalk; the finish line |
| 12 | Ancient Greek | χάλιξ | small stone, pebble; gravel, rubble |
Words derived from “unpretentious”