Etymology

forbearance

for·bear·ance
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Today it means: The action of forbearing (“abstaining or refraining from doing something”); (countable) an instance of this. Full definition →

English forbear ← Middle English forberen ← Old English forberan
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*per-der.?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*pér
  3. Proto-Indo-European*pró
  4. Proto-Indo-European*pro-
  5. Proto-Germanic*fra-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*bʰer-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*bʰéreti
  8. Proto-Germanic*beraną
  9. Proto-Germanic*fraberaną
  10. Old Englishforberan
  11. Middle Englishforberen
  12. Englishforbear
  13. English todayforbearance

From forbear (“to keep away from, avoid”) + -ance (suffix forming nouns indicating conditions or states).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.