English
addition
Addition comes from Latin addō ‘add, put’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- ‘to give’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*deh₃-1‘to give’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEaddō1‘add’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEadditiō1
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400adition1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500addicioun1
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602addition1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English addition
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet: “[…]They clip vs drunkards, and with Swiniſh phraſe /…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*deh₃-Wiktionary, English addition‘to give’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEaddōWiktionary, English addition‘add’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEadditiōWiktionary, English addition
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400aditionWiktionary, English addition
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500addiciounWiktionary, English addition
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602additionWiktionary, English addition. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet: “[…]They clip vs drunkards, and with Swiniſh phraſe /…”
The story
Sense of “what is added” dates from 14th century, from Middle English addicioun, addition, from Old French adition, from Latin additiōnem, accusative singular of additiō, from addō (‘add, put’).
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with addition, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- ‘to give’
- data ← datum ← dō ← *didō ← *dédeh₃ti
- date ← data ← datus ← dare
- die ← dee ← de ← datum ← datus
- rent ← rente ← rendita ← rendere ← reddo
- dose ← dosis ← δόσις ← δίδωμι ← *dédeh₃ti
- delicious ← dēliciōsus ← dēliciae ← dēlicia ← delicere
- surrender ← surrendren ← surrendre ← rendre ← rendere
- donate ← dono ← *dōnāō ← *dōnom ← *déh₃nom
- vent ← vente ← vendo ← dō ← *didō
- vendor
- render ← renderen ← rendre ← rendere ← reddō
- donor ← donoure ← donour ← doneur
64 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun The act of adding anything.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “addition”. 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 / Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- / addition