Etymology

by virtue of

by vir·tue of

Today it means: (originally) By the authority or power of; (now) because of; on the grounds of; by reason of. Full definition →

Middle English in vertu of ← Anglo-Norman par vertu de ← Middle French par la vertu de
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Old French · derived fromvertu“goodness; honour; valour; virtue”
  2. Middle French · derived frompar la vertu de“by the authority of”
  3. Anglo-Norman · derived frompar vertu de
  4. Middle English · inherited fromin vertu of
  5. English todayby virtue of

Modification of Middle English in vertu of, a calque of Anglo-Norman par vertu de or Middle French par la vertu de (“by the authority of”); from Old French vertu (“goodness; honour; valour; virtue”) (whence English virtue (“(obsolete) inherent power of a god or other supernatural being; inherent power or efficacy of something”)).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.