plebiscitum

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*skey-“to dissect; to split”
2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*pleh₁-“to fill”
3. Latin · learned borrowing fromplēbiscītum
4. English todayplebiscitum

Learned borrowing from Latin plēbiscītum, plēbis scītum, plēbī scītum (“law of the common people or plebs”), from plēbis (the genitive singular of plēbs (“common people, plebeians”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)) + scītum (“decree, ordinance, statute”) (from scīscō (“to ascertain; to know; to decree, enact, ordain”) (from sciō (“to know; to understand”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect; to split”)) + -scō (suffix meaning ‘to begin [doing something]’)) + -tum (suffix forming action nouns from verbs)).

Words from the same roots