English
forbearance
Forbearance comes from English forbear ‘to keep away from, avoid’, from Old English forberan ‘to abstain, refrain, restrain, forbear’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fraberaną ‘to hold back or keep away (from)’.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*fraberaną‘to hold back or keep away (from)’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150forberan‘to abstain, refrain, restrain, forbear’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500forberen
- English1500–presentforbear‘to keep away from, avoid’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591forbearance
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*fraberaną‘to hold back or keep away (from)’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150forberan‘to abstain, refrain, restrain, forbear’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500forberen
- English1500–presentforbear‘to keep away from, avoid’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591forbearance
Earliest quotation: 1591, William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixt: “Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance: / The…”
A compound of *fra- ‘off, away’ + *beraną ‘to carry, to bear’
Proto-Indo-European *pro- ‘toward, forward’
Proto-Germanic *fra- ‘off, away’
Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- ‘to bear, carry’
Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti ‘to be carrying’
Proto-Germanic *beraną ‘to carry, to bear’
Every English word from Proto-Germanic *fraberaną
Today it means
noun The action of forbearing (“abstaining or refraining from doing something”); (countable) an instance of this.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *fraberaną / forbearance