Etymology

tributary

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Today it means: A natural water stream that flows into a larger river or other body of water. Full definition →

Middle English tributarie ← Latin tribūtārius
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromtribūtārius
  2. Middle English · inherited fromtributarie“paying tribute”
  3. English todaytributary

PIE word *tréyes From Middle English tributarie (“paying tribute”), from Latin tribūtārius, from tribūtum (“tribute”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.