Where does “unprovoked” come from?
Unprovoked derives from English provoke (to incite), un- (not), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₂ent- (front, before), through Latin unus (one) and intermediate Proto-Indo-European forms.
unprovoked (English): Happening without provocation or motivation;...
Definitions
- Happening without provocation or motivation;...
Ancestry of “unprovoked”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | Un- | — |
| 2 | Middle English | un- | — |
| 3 | Old English | un- | negation or absence of: un-, non-; bad; forms... |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | un- | not, un- |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | un- | not, un- |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | n̥- | not, un- |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | ne | not |
Words derived from “unprovoked”