Where does “最大” come from?

最大 (Japanese) comes from Japanese 大, from Old Japanese 大, from Proto-Japonic əpə — big, large; many.

最大 (Japanese): maximum, greatest, largest

Definitions

  1. maximum, greatest, largest

Ancestry of “最大”, step by step

最大 traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Japanese 大

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese大big, large; the large part of; arch-
2Old Japanese大big, large; large
3Proto-Japonicəpəbig, large; many

via Japanese 最

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese最most, greatest
2Proto-Indo-Europeansai-—
Every word from Proto-Japonic əpə →Every word from Old Japanese 大 →Every word from Japanese 大 →