English
majority
Majority is borrowed from Middle French maiorité, from Medieval Latin maiōritātem, accusative of maiōritās, from Latin maior ‘greater’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmaior1‘greater’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmaiōritās1
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600maiorité1
- Englishearliest quotation 1650majority1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English majority
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […]: “Of evil parents an evil generation, a posterity not…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmaiorWiktionary, English majority‘greater’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmaiōritāsWiktionary, English majority
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600maioritéWiktionary, English majority
- Englishearliest quotation 1650majorityWiktionary, English majority. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […]: “Of evil parents an evil generation, a posterity not…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with majority, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *meǵh₂- ‘great’
- much ← muche ← muchel ← myċel ← *mikil
- magistrate ← magistrat ← magistrātus ← magister ← *magisteros
- mastery ← maistery ← maistrie ← maistre ← magister
- maestro ← magister ← *magisteros
- meister ← meistar ← magister ← *magisteros
- masterly ← maisterli ← maister ← maistre ← magister
- magisterium ← magister ← *magisteros
13 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun More than half (50%) of some group.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “majority”. 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 maior / majority