Where does “effect” come from?
effect (Middle English) comes from Old French effect, from Latin effectus, from Latin efficiō, from Latin ex, from Latin commūnicō, from Latin commūnis, from Old Latin com(m)oinis, from Proto-Italic kommoinis — resin, gum; to say, speak.
Ancestry of “effect”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Old French | effect | effect; judgment; decree |
| 2 | Latin | effectus | made out, worked out, completed, finished,... |
| 3 | Latin | efficiō | — |
| 4 | Latin | ex | A name of the letter "X"; out of, from |
| 5 | Latin | commūnicō | — |
| 6 | Latin | commūnis | — |
| 7 | Old Latin | com(m)oinis | — |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | kommoinis | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱom-moy-ni- | held in common |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 12 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 13 | German | kitt | — |
| 14 | Old High German | kuti | — |
| 15 | Proto-West Germanic | kwidu | gum, resin |
| 16 | Proto-Germanic | kweduz | resin |
| 17 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷet- | resin, gum; to say, speak |
Words derived from “effect”