Etymology Explorer › Middle English

Where does “-al” come from?

-al (Middle English) comes from Old French -al, from Latin -ālis, from Proto-Italic -ālis.

Ancestry of “-al”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old French-alsuffix used to form adjectives from nouns
2Latin-ālis—
3Proto-Italic-ālis—
Every word from Proto-Italic -ālis →