Etymology Explorer › Middle French

Where does “paraphrase” come from?

paraphrase (Middle French) comes from Latin paraphrasis, from Ancient Greek παράφρασις, from Ancient Greek -σῐς, from Ancient Greek -τις, from Proto-Indo-European -tis — Derives abstract/action nouns from verb roots.

Ancestry of “paraphrase”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Latinparaphrasis—
2Ancient Greekπαράφρασις—
3Ancient Greek-σῐς"suffix forming nouns"
4Ancient Greek-τιςEarlier form of -σις , retained after dentals δ,...
5Proto-Indo-European-tisDerives abstract/action nouns from verb roots

Words derived from “paraphrase”

  • paraphrase
  • paraphrasable
  • paraphraser
  • unparaphrasable
  • paraphrasability
  • paraphrasably
  • misparaphrase
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tis →