English
activity
Activity is borrowed from Middle French activité, from Latin āctīvitās; equivalent to active + -ity.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEāctīvitās‘activity’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600activité
- Englishearliest quotation 1978activity
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEāctīvitās‘activity’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600activité
- Englishearliest quotation 1978activity
Earliest quotation: 1978, 1976, Leszek Kołakowski: “There has been a controversy in this sphere between…”
Formed from active + -ity
Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti ‘to be driving’
Latin agō ‘to do, to act’
Latin āctīvus
Old French actif
Middle English actyf ‘active’
English active
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-
suggest, register, essay, gesture, digest, acre, congestion, agrarian, belligerent, progesterone, gestation, ingest, agitate, axiomatic, agger, samaj, gerund, gestion, 133 more
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti ‘to be driving’
strategy, agony, antagonist, axiom, antagonism, agonist, reactionary, antagonize, stratagem, glucagon, agonize, 106 more
through Proto-Italic *agō ‘to drive’
reaction, transaction, unambiguous, reagent, ambiguously, 84 more
through Latin agō ‘to act, to behave’
agency, agent, act, action, actual, agenda, actor, examine, examination, ambiguous, squat, agile, assay, ambiguity, enact, agility, agitation, cogent, actuator, exigent, actuation, inexact, actuate, redact, 96 more
through Latin āctīvus ‘active’
Today it means
noun The state or quality of being active; activeness.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin āctīvitās / activity