Where does “n'est-ce pas” come from?
n'est-ce pas (French) comes from French cé, from Spanish éste, from Latin iste, from Latin hāc, from Latin hīc, from Latin heic, from Latin hic, from Proto-Italic hek(e) — resin.
Ancestry of “n'est-ce pas”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | French | cé | The name of the Latin-script letter C |
| 2 | Spanish | éste | this one |
| 3 | Latin | iste | that ; those; that one ; that ; those ones ;... |
| 4 | Latin | hāc | — |
| 5 | Latin | hīc | — |
| 6 | Latin | heic | — |
| 7 | Latin | hic | this; these; this one; this ; these ones ; these... |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | hek(e) | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | gʰi-ḱe | this, here |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 11 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 12 | German | kitt | — |
| 13 | Old High German | kuti | — |
| 14 | Proto-West Germanic | kwidu | gum, resin |
| 15 | Proto-Germanic | kweduz | resin |