Etymology

downturn

D2O1W4N1T1U1R1N1

Today it means: A downward trend, or the beginnings of one. Full definition →

English turn ← Middle English turnen ← Old French torner
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Englishdown-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*terh₁-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*tórh₁nos
  4. Proto-Hellenic*tórnos
  5. Ancient Greekτόρνος (tórnos)
  6. Latintornus
  7. Latintornō
  8. Proto-West Germanic*turnēn
  9. Old Englishturnian
  10. Latintornō
  11. Old Frenchtorner
  12. Middle Englishturnen
  13. Englishturn
  14. English todaydownturn

From down- + turn.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.