receptive

The story

1. Proto-Italic*wre-
2. Latinre-
3. Proto-Indo-European*kap-
4. Proto-Indo-European*kapyéti
5. Proto-Italic*kapjō
6. Latincapiō
7. Latinrecipiō
8. Latinreceptus
9. Medieval Latinreceptivus
10. Middle Englishreceptive
11. English todayreceptive

From Late Middle English receptive, receptyue (“capable of receiving something; acting as a receptacle”), borrowed from Medieval Latin receptivus (“capable of receiving something”), from Latin receptus (“retaken, having been retaken; received, having been received”) + -īvus (suffix added to the perfect passive participial stems of verbs, forming a deverbal adjective meaning ‘doing; related to doing’). Receptus is the perfect passive participle of recipiō (“to regain possession, take back; to recapture; to receive; to accept, undertake”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards; again’) + capiō (“to capture, catch, take; to take hold, take possession; to take on; to contain, hold; to occupy; to possess; to receive, take in; to comprehend, understand; to captivate, charm”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to hold; to seize”)).

Words from the same roots