English
activity
Activity is borrowed from Middle French activité, from Latin āctīvitās; equivalent to active + -ity.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEāctīvitās1‘activity’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600activité1
- Englishearliest quotation 1978activity1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English activity
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1978, 1976, Leszek Kołakowski: “There has been a controversy in this sphere between…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEāctīvitāsWiktionary, English activity‘activity’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600activitéWiktionary, English activity
- Englishearliest quotation 1978activityWiktionary, English activity. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1978, 1976, Leszek Kołakowski: “There has been a controversy in this sphere between…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with activity, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-
- suggest ← suggestus ← sub ← *supo ← *upó
- register ← registrum ← regesta ← regerō ← gerō
- essay
- gesture ← gestūra ← gerō ← *gezō
- digest ← digesten ← dīgestus ← dīgerō ← gerō
- acre ← æcer ← *akr ← *akraz ← *h₂éǵros
- congestion ← congestioun ← congestĭō ← congerō ← gerō
- agrarian ← agrarien ← agrārius ← ager ← *agros
- belligerent ← belligerans ← belligerō ← belliger ← bellum
- progesterone ← ketone ← Keton ← gestō ← gerō
- gestation ← gestātiō ← gestō ← gerō ← *gezō
- ingest ← ingerō ← gerō ← *gezō
492 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun The state or quality of being active; activeness.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “activity”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin āctīvitās / activity