Etymology

quotative

Q10U1O1T1A1T1I1V4E1

Today it means: A grammatical device to mark quoted speech, such as be like in "he was like, 'who are you?'". Full definition →

English quote ← Middle English quoten ← Old French coter
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*kʷ-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*kʷó-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*kʷóti
  4. Proto-Italic*kʷot
  5. Latinquot
  6. Latinquotus
  7. Medieval Latinquotāre
  8. Old Frenchcoter
  9. Middle Englishquoten
  10. Englishquote
  11. English todayquotative

From quote + -ative.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.