Etymology

reference

ref·er·ence
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Today it means: A relationship or relation (to something). Full definition →

Middle French référence ← Medieval Latin referentia
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The story

  1. Medieval Latin · derived fromreferentia
  2. Middle French · borrowed fromréférence
  3. English todayreference

From Middle French référence, from Medieval Latin referentia, nominative neuter plural of referēns, present participle of referō (“return, reply”, literally “carry back”). Morphologically refer + -ence.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.