The story
- Latin · derived fromcertus“certain, fixed”
- Old French · derived fromacertener
- Middle English · inherited fromacerteynen
- English todayascertain
From Middle English acerteynen, from Old French acertener, from a- (“to, towards”) + certener (“make sure of”), from the adjective certain, from Latin certus (“certain, fixed”). Compare to Spanish acertar.
Words from the same roots
Latincertus all →
certaincertaintycertitudecertescertamen
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.