actact

Act comes from Middle English acte, from Old French acte, from Latin ācta ‘register of events’, plural of āctum ‘decree, law’, from agō ‘to do, to act’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂eǵ-¹reconstructed
2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂éǵeti¹‘to be driving’reconstructed
3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*agō¹‘to drive’reconstructed
4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEagō¹‘to do, to act’
5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEāctum¹‘decree, law’
6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEācta¹‘register of events’
7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400acte¹
8. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500acte¹‘an act’
9. Englishearliest quotation 1651act¹

1. ¹ Wiktionary, English act
2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1651, Jeremy Taylor, Signes of Purity of Intention: “that we act our temporal affairs with a deſire…”.