gravity

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European*gʷreh₂-
2. Proto-Indo-European*gʷréh₂us
3. Proto-Italic*gʷraus
4. Latingravis
5. Latingravitā
6. Frenchgravité
7. Latingravitā
8. English todaygravity

Borrowed from French gravité (“seriousness, solemnity; severity; (physics) gravity”), or from its etymon Latin gravitās (“heaviness, weight; seriousness; severity”), equivalent to grave (“serious”) + -ity (suffix forming nouns, especially abstract nouns). Gravitās is derived from gravis (“heavy; grave, serious”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷreh₂- (“heavy”)) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns indicating states of being). The English word was first used figuratively, and gained the senses relating to physical qualities in the 17th century. Doublet of gravitas.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from early 16th c. Of an activity such as a ceremony, a person's conduct, etc.: the quality of being deeply serious and solemn, especially in a dignified manner; seriousness, solemnity; (countable, archaic or obsolete) a serious or solemn thing, such as a matter, a comment, etc.
• from 17th c. The lowness in pitch of a note, a sound, etc.
• from 17th c. Synonym of gravitation (“the fundamental force of attraction which exists between all matter in the universe that tends to draw bodies towards each other, due to matter causing the curvature of spacetime”); also, a physical law attempting to account for the phenomena of this force.
• from 17th c. Synonym of g-force (“the acceleration of a body relative to the freefall acceleration due to any local gravitational field, expressed in multiples of g0 (the mean acceleration due to gravity (sense 2.2.1) at the Earth's surface)”).
• from 17th c. Dated except in centre of gravity: specific gravity or relative density (“a dimensionless measure which is the ratio of the mass of a substance to that of some reference substance (chiefly an equal volume of water at 4°C)”); also, heaviness, weight.
• from 17th c. The tendency to have weight and thus move downwards, formerly believed to be an inherent quality of some objects.
• from 17th c. The quality of being unable or unwilling to move quickly; heaviness, sluggishness.