portentous

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European*per-
2. Proto-Indo-European*pr̥-
3. Proto-Italic*por-
4. Latinpor-
5. Latintendō
6. Latinportendō
7. Latinportentum
8. Proto-Indo-European*h₃ed-
9. Proto-Indo-European*h₃édosder.?
10. Latinportentōsus
11. Middle Frenchportentueux
12. Latinportentōsus
13. Middle Englishportentuous
14. English todayportentous

From Late Middle English portentuous, from Middle French portentueux (“extraordinary, prodigious; monstrous”) (modern French portenteux (obsolete except literary)), and from its etymon Latin portentōsus, portentuōsus (“marvellous; monstrous, strange, unnatural”), from portentum (“monster; omen, presage, portent; prodigy, wonder”) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; overly prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). Portentum is derived from portendō (“to foretell, predict, portend”) + -tum (an inflected form of -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs)); and portendō from por- (prefix meaning ‘forth, forward, onward’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“‘before, in front’”)) + tendō (“to stretch, stretch out; etc.”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tend- (“to extend, stretch”)). By surface analysis, portent + -ous.

Words from the same roots