epistle

The story

1. Latin · derived fromepistola
2. Middle French · derived fromepistle
3. Anglo-Norman · derived fromepistle
4. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*stel-“to locate; to place, put”
5. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*h₁epi“at; near; on”
6. Ancient Greek · derived fromἐπῐστολή“letter; message”
7. Latin · derived fromepistola“letter, epistle; literary work in letter form”
8. Old English · inherited fromepistol
9. Middle English · inherited fromepistel
10. English todayepistle

PIE word *h₁epi The noun is derived from Middle English epistel, epistole, pistel (“letter; literary work in letter form; written legend or story; spoken communication; (Christianity) one of the letters by an apostle in the New Testament; extract from such a letter read as part of the Mass”) [and other forms], and then partly: * from Old English epistol, epistola, pistol (“letter, epistle”), from Latin epistola (“letter, epistle; literary work in letter form”) (whence Late Latin epistola (“one of the letters by an apostle in the New Testament”)), from Ancient Greek ἐπῐστολή (epĭstolḗ, “letter; message”), from ἐπῐστέλλω (epĭstéllō, “to inform by, or to send, a letter or message”) (from ἐπῐ- (epĭ-, prefix meaning ‘on, upon’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi (“at; near; on”)) + στέλλω (stéllō, “to dispatch, send”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to locate; to place, put”))) + -η (-ē, suffix forming action nouns); and * from Anglo-Norman epistle, and Middle French epistle, epistele, epistole (“letter; (Christianity) one of the letters by an apostle in the New Testament; extract from such a letter read as part of the Mass”) (modern French épître), from Latin epistola (see above). The verb is derived from the noun.

Words from the same roots