English
injective
Injective comes from Latin iniectiō ‘injection’, from iniciō ‘to throw, cast, hurl or place in, on, into,…’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)yeh₁-1‘to throw’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)yéh₁kt ~ *(H)ih₁ként1reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiaciō1‘throw, hurl’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiniciō2‘to throw, cast, hurl or place in, on, into, upon, over or at’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiniectiō3‘injection’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentinjection4
- Frenchc. 1600–presentinjectif5
- Englishtodayinjective5
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin inicio
- 2 Wiktionary, Latin iniectio
- 3 Wiktionary, French injection
- 4 Wiktionary, French injectif
- 5 Wiktionary, English injective
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)yeh₁-Wiktionary, Latin inicio‘to throw’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)yéh₁kt ~ *(H)ih₁kéntWiktionary, Latin inicioreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiaciōWiktionary, Latin inicio‘throw, hurl’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiniciōWiktionary, Latin iniectio‘to throw, cast, hurl or place in, on, into, upon, over or at’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiniectiōWiktionary, French injection‘injection’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentinjectionWiktionary, French injectif
- Frenchc. 1600–presentinjectifWiktionary, English injective
- EnglishtodayinjectiveWiktionary, English injective
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- ‘to throw’
year, hour, catheter, trajectory, enema, jut, abject, iambic, jetsam, 37 more
through Proto-Indo-European *(H)yéh₁kt ~ *(H)ih₁ként
objective, projection, objection, projectile, objector, dejection, 22 more
through Latin iaciō ‘throw, hurl’
disease, project, ease, adjacent, jet, object, jess, gist, jetty, ejaculation, conjecture, ejaculate, adjective, ejection, eject, joist, jettison, subjection, interject, 31 more
Today it means
adj Of, relating to, or being an injection: such that each element of the image (or range) is associated with at most one element of the preimage (or domain); inverse-deterministic
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “injective”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin inicio, Latin iniectio, French injection, French injectif. 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)yeh₁- / injective