English
formidability
Formidability comes from Latin formīdō ‘to fear, dread’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEformīdō‘to fear, dread’
- Englishearliest quotation 1890formidability
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEformīdō‘to fear, dread’
- Englishearliest quotation 1890formidability
Earliest quotation: 1890, Horace Walpole: “A Mackintosh has been taken, who reduces their formidability,…”
Formed from -ability
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- ‘to hold’
dark, drug, dry, drama, firm, dare, throne, drain, drone, feasible, drastic, refrain, darn, dharma, dazed, dor, dern, 42 more
Today it means
noun The state of being formidable.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin formīdō / formidability