The story
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*mahtilausaz
- Old English · inherited frommihtlēas
- Middle English · inherited frommightles
- English todaymightless
From Middle English mightles, from Old English mihtlēas, mihtelēas, from Proto-Germanic *mahtilausaz; equivalent to might + -less. Cognate with Scots michtles, Saterland Frisian machtloos, West Frisian machteleas, Dutch machteloos, German Low German machtlos, German machtlos, Swedish maktlös, Icelandic máttlaus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.