Etymology

devoir

de·voir
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Today it means: Duty, business; something that one must do. Full definition →

Middle English devoir ← Middle French devoir ← Old French deveir
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromdēbēre“to owe; ought, must”
  2. Old French · derived fromdeveir
  3. Middle French · derived fromdevoir
  4. Middle English · inherited fromdevoir
  5. English todaydevoir

From Middle English devoir, borrowed from Middle French devoir, from Old French deveir, from Latin dēbēre (“to owe; ought, must”).

Words from the same roots

Latindēbēre all →

duedr

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.