Etymology Explorer › Middle English

Where does “figure” come from?

figure (Middle English) comes from Old French figure, from Latin figūra, from Latin fingō, from Proto-Indo-European dʰeyǵʰ- — to knead; to form, to shape.

Ancestry of “figure”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchfigure—
2Latinfigūra—
3Latinfingō—
4Proto-Indo-Europeandʰeyǵʰ-to knead; to form, to shape

Words derived from “figure”

  • figure
  • figured
  • figurehead
  • refigure
  • unfigured
  • figurate
  • subfigure
  • figurable
  • figureless
  • multifigure
  • figureth
  • counterfigure
  • multifigured
  • outfigure
  • defigure
  • defiguration
  • figurework
  • figurately
  • figurist
  • figurest
  • minifigure
  • minifig
  • figurial
  • nonfigurable
Every word from Proto-Indo-European dʰeyǵʰ- →