urgent

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*werǵʰ-“bind, squeeze”
2. Latin · derived fromurgēns
3. Middle French · borrowed fromurgent“pressing, impelling”
4. English todayurgent

Borrowed from Middle French urgent (“pressing, impelling”), from Latin urgēns, from urgēre (“to press”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵʰ- (“bind, squeeze”). Equivalent to urge + -ent. Related to German würgen (“to strangle”), Lithuanian ver̃žti (“to string, tighten, constrict”), Russian (poetic) отверза́ть (otverzátʹ, “to open”, literally “to untie”), Polish otwierać (“to open”)) and English worry, wring, wreak, wreck.

Words from the same roots