Etymograph

English

nutritious

Nutritious comes from Latin nūtrītus ‘Breastfed’, from Proto-Indo-European *snew-tr-ih₂ ‘female nurser’, and ultimately from *(s)neh₂- ‘to swim’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)neh₂-1‘to swim’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*snew-tr-ih₂2‘female nurser’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*snoutrjō2reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnutriō1as nūtrīre‘to suckle, breastfeed, nurse’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnūtrītus1‘Breastfed’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnūtrītius1
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1861nutritious1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English nutritious
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin nutrio
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1861, Isaac Taylor, The Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry: “A cumbrous, circuitous, and often a sophisticative mode of…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)neh₂-Wiktionary, English nutritious‘to swim’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*snew-tr-ih₂Wiktionary, Latin nutrio‘female nurser’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*snoutrjōWiktionary, Latin nutrioreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnutriōWiktionary, English nutritiousas nūtrīre‘to suckle, breastfeed, nurse’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnūtrītusWiktionary, English nutritious‘Breastfed’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnūtrītiusWiktionary, English nutritious
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1861nutritiousWiktionary, English nutritious. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1861, Isaac Taylor, The Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry: “A cumbrous, circuitous, and often a sophisticative mode of…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₂- ‘to swim’

naval, insulin, navigation, navigate, nausea, navigator, insular, navigable, nao, nau, insula, astronautics, 23 more

through Latin nutriō ‘to suckle, breastfeed, nurse’

nurse, nurture, nourishment, nourish, 4 more

Today it means

adj Providing nutrients; healthy to eat or drink.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “nutritious”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin nutrio. 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 *(s)neh₂- / nutritious

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