Etymology

ubication

ubi·cat·ion
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Today it means: The condition or fact of being in, or occupying, a certain place or position; whereness, ubiety; also, a location. Full definition →

New Latin ubicātiō ← Latin ubicātus ← Proto-Indo-European *kʷ-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*kʷ-
  2. Latin · derived fromubicātus“located”
  3. New Latin · borrowed fromubicātiō“location”
  4. English todayubication

Borrowed from New Latin ubicātiō (“location”) (whence Portuguese ubicação and Spanish ubicación; compare the inflected forms ubicātiōnis, ubicātiōnī, etc.) + -ion. Ubicātiō is derived from Latin ubicātus (“located”) + -iō (suffix forming abstract nouns); while ubicātus is a past participial form of ubicō (“to situate”) (found in British works from the 14th century), from ubi (“where”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- (primary interrogative root)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). By surface analysis, ubicate + -ion (ubicate is probably a back-formation from ubication). Later occurrences are influenced by Spanish ubicación, hence their use chiefly in Spanish contexts.

Words from the same roots

New Latinubicātiō all →

ubicate

Latinubicātus all →

ubicate

Proto-Indo-European*kʷ- all →

whereubicate

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.