Etymology

-most

Today it means: Furthest; -est; used to form superlatives of certain adjectives, especially directional and inherently-comparative ones. Full definition →

Middle English -most(e) ← Old English -(e)mest ← Proto-Germanic *-umistaz
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*-mHo-
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*-umistaz
  3. Old English · inherited from-(e)mest
  4. Middle English · inherited from-most(e)
  5. English today-most

From Middle English -most(e), from earlier -mest, from Old English -(e)mest, from Proto-Germanic *-umistaz, from the comparative suffix *-umô (from Proto-Indo-European *-mHo-) + the regular superlative suffix *-istaz (whence English -est). The Middle English form is due to conflation with the originally unrelated superlative most. See foremost for more.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.