English
duplicate
Duplicate comes from Latin duplicātus ‘doubled, duplicated’, and goes back to duplex ‘twofold’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEduplex‘twofold’next step skipped: Latin duplicō
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEduplicātus‘doubled, duplicated’
- Englishearliest quotation 1819duplicate
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEduplex‘twofold’next step skipped: Latin duplicō
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEduplicātus‘doubled, duplicated’
- Englishearliest quotation 1819duplicate
Earliest quotation: 1819, James Hardy Vaux, Memoirs of James Hardy Vaux: “Sir, I hope you will excuse what I am…”
Linked words
through Latin duplex ‘twofold’
through Latin duplicātus ‘doubled, duplicated’
Today it means
adj Being the same as another; identical, often having been copied from an original.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin duplex / duplicate