English
accelerator
Accelerator comes from English accelerate.
- English1500–presentaccelerate
- Englishearliest quotation 2002accelerator
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history not traced here.
Lineage
- English1500–presentaccelerate
- Englishearliest quotation 2002accelerator
Earliest quotation: 2002, Davis Howard Chapman, Sams Teach Yourself Visual C++ .NET in 21 Days: “If they had allowed single-character accelerators, Windows wouldn't be…”
A compound of celer ‘fast, swift, quick, speedy, fleet’ + celerō ‘to hasten, quicken, accelerate’ + accelerō ‘to quicken, hasten, speed up, accelerate’
Proto-Indo-European *kel- ‘to drive, particularly of animals’
Latin celer ‘fast, swift, quick, speedy, fleet’
Proto-Indo-European *kel- ‘to drive, particularly of animals’
Latin celer ‘fast, swift, quick, speedy, fleet’
Latin celerō ‘to hasten, quicken, accelerate’
Proto-Indo-European *kel- ‘to drive, particularly of animals’
Latin celer ‘fast, swift, quick, speedy, fleet’
Latin celerō ‘to quicken, accelerate’
Latin accelerō ‘to quicken, hasten, speed up, accelerate’
Latin accelerō ‘to quicken, hasten, speed up, accelerate’
first attested * First attested in 1611 (as stated in the etymology)
Every English word from English accelerate
Today it means
noun One who, or that which, accelerates.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / English accelerate / accelerator