Etymology

counter-attack

count·er·at·tack

Today it means: An attack made in response to an attack by the opponents Full definition →

English attack ← French attaque ← Italian attaccare
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ḱe?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*ḱóm
  3. Proto-Italic*kom
  4. Proto-Italic*kom-
  5. Proto-Italic*komteros
  6. Proto-Italic*komterād
  7. Latincontrā
  8. Old Frenchcontre-
  9. Anglo-Normancountre-
  10. Middle Englishcounter-
  11. Englishcounter-
  12. Proto-Indo-European*h₂éd
  13. Proto-Italic*ad
  14. Proto-Italic*ad-
  15. Latinad-
  16. Italiana-
  17. Proto-Indo-European*dwóh₁
  18. Proto-Indo-European*trísinflu.
  19. Proto-Indo-European*d(w)is-
  20. Proto-Italic*dis-
  21. Latindis-
  22. Old Frenchdes-
  23. Old Frenchatachier
  24. Old Frenchdestachier
  25. Middle Frenchdestacher
  26. Italiandistaccare
  27. Italianstaccare
  28. Italianattaccare
  29. Frenchattaquerdeverb.
  30. Frenchattaque
  31. Englishattack
  32. English todaycounter-attack

From counter- + attack.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.