Where does “ややもすれば” come from?
ややもすれば (Japanese) comes from Japanese も, from Old Japanese も, from Proto-Japonic mə, from Arabic مَن — who?; who.
ややもすれば (Japanese): easily; inclined to
Ancestry of “ややもすれば”, step by step
ややもすれば traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Japanese も
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Japanese | も | Used to form the conjectural form of verbs,... |
| 2 | Old Japanese | も | non-unique topic marker: also, even |
| 3 | Proto-Japonic | mə | non-unique topic marker: also, even, too, as well |
| 4 | Arabic | مَن | who?; who |
via Japanese する
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Japanese | する | to exist; to come up; to exist; to be worth; to... |
| 2 | Old Japanese | す | to do; to happen, occur; to be in a state of... |
| 3 | Proto-Japonic | *su | nest |