Etymograph

English

subtract

Subtract comes from Latin subtractus ‘removed, withdrawn, subtracted, taken away’, and goes back to subtrahō ‘to draw from beneath’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsubtrahō1‘to draw from beneath’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsubtractus1‘removed, withdrawn, subtracted, taken away’perfect passive participle of subtrahō
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2022subtract1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English subtract
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2022, Alec Wilkinson, Could learning algebra in my 60s make me smarter?: “I could add and subtract and multiply and divide,…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsubtrahōWiktionary, English subtract‘to draw from beneath’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsubtractusWiktionary, English subtract‘removed, withdrawn, subtracted, taken away’perfect passive participle of subtrahō
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2022subtractWiktionary, English subtract. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2022, Alec Wilkinson, Could learning algebra in my 60s make me smarter?: “I could add and subtract and multiply and divide,…”

A compound of sub ‘under’ + trahō ‘to draw, pull, drag’

Proto-Indo-European *upó ‘up; from below’

Proto-Italic *supo ‘under’

Latin sub ‘under’

Proto-Indo-European *-ǵʰ-

Latin trahō ‘to draw, pull, drag’

Every English word from Latin subtrahō

Today it means

verb To remove or reduce; especially to reduce a quantity or number.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “subtract”. 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 subtrahō / subtract

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