Etymology

captious

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Today it means: That captures; especially, (of an argument, words etc.) designed to capture or entrap in misleading arguments; sophistical. Full definition →

Middle English capcious ← Middle French captieux ← Latin captiōsus
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromcaptiōsus
  2. Middle French · derived fromcaptieux
  3. Middle English · inherited fromcapcious
  4. English todaycaptious

From Middle English capcious, from Middle French captieux, or its source, Latin captiōsus, from captiō.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.