decline

The story

1. Old French · derived fromdecliner
2. Old English · inherited fromdeclīnian
3. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ḱley-
4. Latin · derived fromdeclīnō“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”
5. Middle English · inherited fromdeclinen
6. English todaydecline

From Middle English declinen, and ultimately Latin declīnō (“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”, from dē- (“down”) + clīnō (“to bend, to incline”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean). The senses arrived from two separate pathways in Middle English: * The grammatical sense came from Old English declīnian, which was borrowed directly from the Latin etymon. * All senses except the grammatical sense were derived from those of Old French decliner. Old French itself borrowed the verb from Latin.

Words from the same roots