Etymograph

English

amenable

Amenable comes from Old French amener ‘to bring or lead, fetch in or to’, and goes back to Late Latin minor ‘to drive’.

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEminoras mināre‘to drive’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400mener‘to lead, conduct’
  3. Old French, derivedc. 842–1400amener‘to bring or lead, fetch in or to’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400amenable
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2020same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history not traced here.

Lineage

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEminoras mināre‘to drive’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400mener‘to lead, conduct’
  3. Old French, derivedc. 842–1400amener‘to bring or lead, fetch in or to’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400amenable
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2020same form

Earliest quotation: 2020, Richard Conniff, They may look goofy, but ostriches are nobody’s fool: “The communal nature of ostriches may have made these…”

Linked words

through Late Latin minor ‘to drive’

minister, minor, menace, 8 more

through Old French mener ‘to lead, conduct’

demeanor, demean

Today it means

adj Willing to respond to persuasion or suggestions.

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

Etymograph / Late Latin minor / amenable

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