Etymology

underact

U1N1D2E1R1A1C3T1

Today it means: To act in an understated manner or with little expressiveness. Full definition →

English act ← Middle English acte ← Old French act
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁én
  2. Proto-Indo-European*h₁entér
  3. Proto-Indo-European*h₂én
  4. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeh₁-?
  5. Proto-Indo-European*(H)n̥dʰí
  6. Proto-Indo-European*(H)n̥dʰér
  7. Proto-Germanic*under
  8. Proto-West Germanic*undar
  9. Old Englishunder-
  10. Middle Englishunder-
  11. Englishunder-
  12. Latinagō
  13. Latināctus
  14. Latinācta
  15. Old Frenchact
  16. Middle Englishacte
  17. Englishact
  18. English todayunderact

From under- + act.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.