Where does “avaricious” come from?
avaricious (Middle English) comes from Old French avaricieux, from Old French avarice, from Latin avāritia, from Latin -itia, from Latin -ia, from Latin -ius, from Proto-Italic -jōs, from Proto-Indo-European -yós — Creates adjectives from noun or verb stems.
Ancestry of “avaricious”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old French | avaricieux | avaricious; miserly; stingy |
| 2 | Old French | avarice | greed; avarice |
| 3 | Latin | avāritia | A greedy desire for possessions or gain; avarice, greed, greediness, covetousness, rapacity |
| 4 | Latin | -itia | -ness, -ity |
| 5 | Latin | -ia | Used to form a feminine abstract noun, usually... |
| 6 | Latin | -ius | forming adjectives from nouns; nominative neuter... |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | -jōs | Forms comparative adjectives |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -yós | Creates adjectives from noun or verb stems |