obviousobvious

Obvious comes from Latin obvius ‘in the way, at hand’, from ob ‘before’ + via ‘way’, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁- ‘to pursue’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weyh₁-¹‘to pursue’reconstructed
2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wih₁eh₂-¹reconstructed
3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wiā¹‘road’reconstructed
4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvia²‘way’
5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEobvius²‘being in the way so as to meet’
6. Englishearliest quotation 1910obvious²

1. ¹ Wiktionary, Latin via
2. ² Wiktionary, English obvious
3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1910, Emerson Hough, Indianapolis: “Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging…”.