Where does “virility” come from?
Virility comes from French virilité, from Latin virilitas (quality of being a man), derived from Latin vir (man) and the suffix -itas, with vir ultimately from Proto-Indo-European wiHrós (man).
virility (English): The state of being virile; Manly character,...
Definitions
- The state of being virile; Manly character,...
Ancestry of “virility”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | virile | Being manly; having characteristics associated... |
| 2 | Middle French | viril | — |
| 3 | Latin | virilis | manly, masculine, virile; mature |
| 4 | Latin | vir | man in the sense of "adult male human"; adult,... |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | wiros | a man |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | wiHrós | man; husband; warrior, hero |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | weyh₁- | to chase, pursue; to suppress, persecute |