Where does “doctor” come from?
doctor (Middle Dutch) comes from Latin doctor, from Latin -tor, from Proto-Italic -tōr, from Proto-Indo-European -tōr, from Proto-Indo-European -tor-s.
Ancestry of “doctor”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Latin | doctor | teacher, instructor; catechist |
| 2 | Latin | -tor | -er |
| 3 | Proto-Italic | -tōr | — |
| 4 | Proto-Indo-European | -tōr | Derives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone... |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | -tor-s | — |
Words derived from “doctor”