Etymology

triumvirate

tri·um·vir·ate
T1R1I1U1M3V4I1R1A1T1E1

Today it means: A council of three magistrates ruling jointly; specifically, the First Triumvirate (60 or 59 – 53 B.C.E.) or the Second Triumvirate (43 – 33 or 27 B.C.E.); the office of a triumvir (“one of such magistrates”), or of the three triumviri. Full definition →

Latin triumvirātu ← Proto-Italic *wiros ← Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*tréyes
  2. Proto-Italic*trejes
  3. Proto-Italic*trēs
  4. Latintrium
  5. Proto-Indo-European*weyh₁-?
  6. Proto-Indo-European*wiHrós
  7. Proto-Italic*wiros
  8. Latinvir
  9. Latintriumvir
  10. Latintriumvirātu
  11. English todaytriumvirate

Learned borrowing from Latin triumvirātus (“triumvirate”) (see -ate (suffix forming nouns denoting offices or ranks)), itself derived from triumvir (“member of a triumvirate”) + -ātus (“-ate”, suffix forming nouns denoting offices or ranks, or groups of officials associated with such offices or ranks); and triumvir from trium (“of three”) (the genitive form of trēs (“three”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + vir (“adult male human, man”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós (“man”)). By surface analysis, triumvir + -ate.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*tréyes all →

threecontributetriternneo-testamentaryteapoytryzub

Proto-Indo-European*wiHrós all →

virtualwer

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.