English
adherent
Adherent comes from Latin adhaerēns ‘cleaving or sticking to’, and goes back to haereō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhaereō‘to stick, stick fast’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEadhaereō‘to stick to, cling’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEadhaerēns‘cleaving or sticking to’present participle of adhaereō
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400adherent
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
- Englishearliest quotation 1738same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhaereō‘to stick, stick fast’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEadhaereō‘to stick to, cling’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEadhaerēns‘cleaving or sticking to’present participle of adhaereō
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400adherent
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
- Englishearliest quotation 1738same form
Earliest quotation: 1738, Alexander Pope, Imitations of Horace: “Close to the cliff with both his hands he…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *gʰays- ‘to adhere, to stick, to be fixed’
through Latin haereō ‘to stick, stick fast’
hesitate, hesitation, cohesion, hesitant, coherent, coherence, hesitancy, coherency, 23 more
through Latin adhaereō ‘to stick to, cling’
Today it means
adj Adhesive, sticking to something.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin haereō / adherent