Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “visionary” come from?

Visionary derives from English vision plus the Latin agentive suffix -arius, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European weyd- meaning to see.

visionary (English): having vision or foresight; imaginary or...

Definitions

  1. having vision or foresight; imaginary or...

Ancestry of “visionary”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1English-aryof or pertaining to; adjective suffix appended to...
2Italian-ario-ary; Added to nouns to create attributive...
3Latin-ārium—
4Latin-umnominative neuter singular of -us; accusative...
5Proto-Italic*-om—
6Proto-Indo-European*-oHom—

Words derived from “visionary”

  • visionariness
  • unvisionary
  • nonvisionary
  • visionarily
Every word from Proto-Indo-European *-oHom →