Etymology

weak verb

Today it means: One of a class of verbs which use a dental suffix appended to the stem to indicate the past tense. Full definition →

German schwaches Verb ← Arabic فِعْل مُعْتَلّ
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The story

  1. Arabic · semantic loan fromفِعْل مُعْتَلّ
  2. German · calque ofschwaches Verb
  3. English todayweak verb

Calque of German schwaches Verb (19th c.). Jacob Grimm called “weak” those classes of conjugation and declension which had lost more distinctions between forms or grammatical categories. The later use of Semitic is a semantic loan from Arabic فِعْل مُعْتَلّ (fiʕl muʕtall).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.