Etymograph

English

adoption

Adoption comes from Latin adoptō ‘to take by choice, choose, select’, and goes back to optō.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEoptō‘to choose, select, prefer, opt’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEadoptō‘to take by choice, choose, select’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEadoptio
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentadoption
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1904–1905same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEoptō‘to choose, select, prefer, opt’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEadoptō‘to take by choice, choose, select’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEadoptio
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentadoption
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1904–1905same form

Earliest quotation: 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., The Tragedy in Dartmoor Terrace: “The story of this adoption is, of course, the…”

Formed from adopt + -ion

Latin adoptō ‘to assume, adopt’

Middle French adopter

English adopt

Linked words

through Latin optō ‘to choose, select, prefer, opt’

opt, 7 more

Today it means

noun The act of adopting.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin optō / adoption

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