Etymology

liquid

liq·uid
L1I1Q10U1I1D2

Today it means: A substance that is flowing, and keeping no shape, such as water; a substance of which the molecules, while not tending to separate from one another like those of a gas, readily change their relative position, and which therefore retains no definite shape, except that determined by the containing receptacle; an inelastic fluid. Full definition →

Middle English liquide ← Old French liquide ← Latin liquidu
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*wleykʷ-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*wlikʷéh₁yeti
  3. Proto-Italic*(w)likʷēō
  4. Latinliqueō
  5. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeh₁-
  6. Latinliquidu
  7. Old Frenchliquide
  8. Middle Englishliquide
  9. English todayliquid

From Middle English liquide, from Old French liquide, from Latin liquidus (“fluid, liquid, moist”), from liqueō (“to be liquid, be fluid”). Doublet of liquidus. As a term for a consonant, it comes from Latin liquida (cōnsōnāns), a calque of Ancient Greek ὑγρὸν (σύμφωνον) (hugròn (súmphōnon), “liquid consonant”).

Words from the same roots

Latinliquidus all →

liquidateliquidus

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.