Etymology

binary

bi·na·ry
B3I1N1A1R1Y4

Today it means: Being in one of two mutually exclusive states. Full definition →

Middle English binarie ← Late Latin bīnāriu ← Latin bīnus
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*dwóh₁
  2. Proto-Indo-European*trísinflu.
  3. Proto-Indo-European*dwís
  4. Proto-Italic*dwis
  5. Proto-Italic*dwiznos
  6. Latinbīnus
  7. Late Latinbīnāriu
  8. Middle Englishbinarie
  9. English todaybinary

Inherited from Middle English binarie. By surface analysis, bin- + -ary.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.