Etymology

phossy

P3H4O1S1S1Y4

Today it means: Affected or caused by the presence of phosphorus. Full definition →

English phos(phorous) ← Latin phōsphorus ← Ancient Greek φωσφόρος (phōsphóros)
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰeh₂-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*bʰéh₂os
  3. Proto-Hellenic*pʰáwos
  4. Ancient Greekφᾰ́ος (phắos)
  5. Ancient Greekφῶς (phôs)
  6. Ancient Greekφωσφόρος (phōsphóros)
  7. Latinphōsphorus
  8. Englishphos(phorous)
  9. English todayphossy

From phos(phorous) + -y.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.