Where does “witchfinder general” come from?
witchfinder general (English) comes from English witchfinder, from English finder, from German Finder, from German -er, from Old High German -āri, from Proto-West Germanic -ārī, from Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, from Latin -ārius — Forms relational adjectives to nouns (and rarely numerals).
witchfinder general (English): A title assumed by
Definitions
- A title assumed by
Ancestry of “witchfinder general”, step by step
witchfinder general traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English witchfinder
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | witchfinder | A person employed to carry out witch-hunts and... |
| 2 | English | finder | One who finds or discovers something; An optical... |
| 3 | German | Finder | finder |
| 4 | German | -er | Forms agent nouns etc. from verbs, suffixed to... |
| 5 | Old High German | -āri | used to form agent nouns |
| 6 | Proto-West Germanic | -ārī | -er |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | -ārijaz | -er |
| 8 | Latin | -ārius | er |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | *-āzios | Forms relational adjectives to nouns (and rarely numerals) |
via English General
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | General | The military officer title |
| 2 | Middle English | general | universal, complete; comprehensive, wide-ranging;... |
| 3 | Anglo-Norman | general | general |
| 4 | Latin | generalis | general, generic |
| 5 | Latin | genus | birth, origin, lineage, descent; kind, type,... |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | genos | lineage, origin |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵénh₁os | race, lineage |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵenh₁- | to produce, to beget, to give birth |