Etymology

xenelasy

xen·e·lasy
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Today it means: The practice of expelling foreigners in Doric Crete and Lacedaemonia. Full definition →

Ancient Greek ξενηλᾰσῐ́ᾱ ← Pre-Greek ← Proto-Indo-European *h₁elh₂-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*h₁elh₂-“to drive somewhere”
  2. Pre-Greek · derived from
  3. Ancient Greek · learned borrowing fromξενηλᾰσῐ́ᾱ“expulsion of foreigners”
  4. English todayxenelasy

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ξενηλᾰσῐ́ᾱ (xenēlăsĭ́ā, “expulsion of foreigners”) + English -y (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting a condition, quality, or state). Ξενηλᾰσῐ́ᾱ (Xenēlăsĭ́ā) is derived from ξενηλατεῖν (xenēlateîn, “to expel a foreigner”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns); and ξενηλατεῖν (xenēlateîn) is from ξένος (xénos, “foreigner; stranger”) (probably from Pre-Greek) + ἐλαύνω (elaúnō, “to drive, set in motion; to drive away”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁elh₂- (“to drive somewhere”)) + -ειν (-ein, suffix forming infinitives of verbs).

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekξενηλᾰσῐ́ᾱ all →

Proto-Indo-European*h₁elh₂- all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.