Etymograph

English

adjective

Adjective comes from Latin adiectivus ‘added, additional’, from adiciō ‘to throw, hurl, cast or fling an object to,…’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)ih₁-k-(i-).

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)ih₁-k-(i-)1uncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*jak-i-1uncertain
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiaciō2‘throw’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEadiciō2‘to throw, hurl, cast or fling an object to, towards, or at’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEadiectivus2‘added, additional’
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400adjectif2
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500adjectif2
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1655adjective2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin iacio
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English adjective
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of the University of Cambridge: “it must be an adjective of dain”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)ih₁-k-(i-)Wiktionary, Latin iaciouncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*jak-i-Wiktionary, Latin iaciouncertain
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiaciōWiktionary, English adjective‘throw’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEadiciōWiktionary, English adjective‘to throw, hurl, cast or fling an object to, towards, or at’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEadiectivusWiktionary, English adjective‘added, additional’
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400adjectifWiktionary, English adjective
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500adjectifWiktionary, English adjective
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1655adjectiveWiktionary, English adjective. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of the University of Cambridge: “it must be an adjective of dain”

The story

The Latin word adiectivus in turn was a calque of Ancient Greek ἐπιθετικόν (epithetikón, “added”), a derivative of the compound verb ἐπιτίθημι (epitíthēmi), from which also comes epithet.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Latin iaciō ‘throw’

disease, project, ease, jet, object, adjacent, jess, injection, gist, conjecture, inject, jetty, ejaculation, ejaculate, ejection, eject, joist, jettison, subjection, interject, 30 more

Today it means

noun A word that modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes a noun’s referent.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “adjective”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin iacio. 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 *(H)ih₁-k-(i-) / adjective

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