Etymology

vain

V4A1I1N1

Today it means: Overly proud of oneself, especially concerning appearance; having a high opinion of one's own accomplishments with slight reason. Full definition →

Middle English veyn ← Old French vain ← Latin vānus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

vain · adjective1

  1. Latin · derived fromvānus“empty”
  2. Old French · derived fromvain
  3. Middle English · inherited fromveyn
  4. English todayvain

From Middle English veyn, from Old French vain, from Latin vānus (“empty”).

vain · verb2

A conversion of the adjectival form of vain. The only use of this verb in English appears c. 1628 in the writings of Owen Felltham.

Words from the same roots

Latinvānus all →

vaingloriousvauntvaniloquence

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.