English
bonify
Bonify comes from French bonifier ‘to improve’.
- Frenchc. 1600–presentbonifier‘to improve’
- Englishearliest quotation 1678bonify
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Frenchc. 1600–presentbonifier‘to improve’
- Englishearliest quotation 1678bonify
Earliest quotation: 1678, Ralph Cudworth, London: […] Richard Royston: “to bonify evils, or tincture them with good”.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- ‘to fit’
down, town, tool, teen, dynamic, dynasty, tow, dun, dynamo, dynastic, tine, taw, beaucoup, beauteous, 90 more
through Proto-Italic *dwenos ‘good’
beautiful, beauty, rebellion, beau, boo, rebellious, bello, rebelling, benefice, bauble, 35 more
through Archaic Latin duenos
ben, beneficial, rebel, beneficiary, revel, bene, bellicose, 36 more
through Latin bonus ‘good’
optimal, bonus, optimism, bona, 13 more
through Old French bon ‘good (not evil)’
through Middle French bon ‘good’
Today it means
verb To convert into―or make―good; to improve.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / French bonifier / bonify