diction

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*deyḱ-“to show, to point out”
2. Late Latin · derived fromdictiō“word”
3. Anglo-Norman · derived fromdictyoun
4. Old French · derived fromdicïon“word”
5. Latin · derived fromdictiō“a saying, speaking, uttering”
6. Middle English · inherited fromdiccion“something said; a word or phrase”
7. English todaydiction

From late Middle English diccion (“something said; a word or phrase”) (an obsolete sense in Modern English), borrowed directly from Latin dictiō (“a saying, speaking, uttering”) or from Old French dicïon (“word”) (Anglo-Norman dictyoun), from Late Latin dictiō (“word”), both from dīcō (“to say, to talk”) + -tiō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show, to point out”). The modern senses of “choice and use of words” and “clarity of word choice” were likely influenced by additional senses of dictiō.

Words from the same roots