Etymology

overprotective

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Today it means: Excessively protective, wanting to give too much protection (especially to children). Full definition →

English protective ← Medieval Latin prōtēctīvus ← Middle English over-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*úp
  2. Proto-Indo-European*upér
  3. Proto-Germanic*uber
  4. Old Englishofer-
  5. Middle Englishover-
  6. Englishover-
  7. Medieval Latinprōtēctīvus
  8. Englishprotective
  9. English todayoverprotective

From over- + protective.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.