Etymology

consonant

C3O1N1S1O1N1A1N1T1

Today it means: A sound that results from the passage of air through restrictions of the oral cavity; any sound that is not the nucleus of a syllable, the nucleus generally being a vowel. Full definition →

Middle English consonant ← Old French consonant ← Latin cōnsonāns
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ḱe?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*ḱóm
  3. Proto-Italic*kom
  4. Proto-Italic*kom-
  5. Latincon-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*swenh₂-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*swonh₂éyeti
  8. Proto-Italic*swonaō
  9. Latinsonō
  10. Latincōnsonō
  11. Latincōnsonāns
  12. Old Frenchconsonant
  13. Middle Englishconsonant
  14. English todayconsonant

From Middle English consonant or consonaunt, from Old French consonant, from Latin cōnsonāns (“sounding with”), from the prefix con- (“with”) + the present participle sonāns (“sounding”), from sonāre (“to sound”). The Latin is a calque of Ancient Greek σύμφωνον (súmphōnon).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.