Etymology

semisweet

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Today it means: Partially sweet or sweetened, but having a distinct bitter component. Full definition →

English sweet ← Middle English swete ← Old English swēte
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*sem-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*sēmi
  3. Latinsēmi-
  4. Englishsemi-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*sweh₂d-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*swéh₂dus
  7. Proto-Germanic*swōtuz
  8. Proto-West Germanic*swōtī
  9. Old Englishswēte
  10. Middle Englishswete
  11. Englishsweet
  12. English todaysemisweet

From semi- + sweet.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.