English
crescive
Crescive comes from Latin crēscō ‘to increase’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- ‘to grow, become bigger’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱer-1‘to grow, become bigger’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱreh₁-sḱéti1reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcrēscō2as crēscere‘to increase’
- Englishearliest quotation 1599crescive2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin cresco
- 2 Wiktionary, English crescive
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1599, William Shakespeare, The Life of Henry the Fift: “And so the prince obscured his contemplation Under the…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱer-Wiktionary, Latin cresco‘to grow, become bigger’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱreh₁-sḱétiWiktionary, Latin crescoreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcrēscōWiktionary, English cresciveas crēscere‘to increase’
- Englishearliest quotation 1599cresciveWiktionary, English crescive. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1599, William Shakespeare, The Life of Henry the Fift: “And so the prince obscured his contemplation Under the…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- ‘to grow, become bigger’
create, creative, creator, creature, cereal, creole, procreation, kore, creat, 26 more
through Proto-Indo-European *ḱreh₁-sḱéti
through Latin crēscō ‘to increase’
increase, increasing, decrease, increment, croissant, excrement, cru, accretion, 10 more
Today it means
adj Increasing or growing; marked by gradual spontaneous development.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “crescive”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin cresco. 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 *ḱer- / crescive