Etymology

onus

O1N1U1S1

Today it means: A legal obligation. Full definition →

Latin onu ← Proto-Italic *onos ← Proto-Indo-European *h₃én(H)os
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₃en(H)-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*h₃én(H)os
  3. Proto-Italic*onos
  4. Latinonu
  5. English todayonus

Learned borrowing from Latin onus (literally “burden”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.