English
insecticide
Insecticide comes from French insecte ‘insect’, and goes back to Latin īnsectus ‘cut into, cut up, with a notched or divided body’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEīnsectus‘cut into, cut up, with a notched or divided body’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEīnsectum
- Frenchc. 1600–presentinsecte‘insect’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentinsecticide
- Englishearliest quotation 2009same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history not traced here.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEīnsectus‘cut into, cut up, with a notched or divided body’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEīnsectum
- Frenchc. 1600–presentinsecte‘insect’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentinsecticide
- Englishearliest quotation 2009same form
Earliest quotation: 2009, Handbook of Pesticides: Methods of Pesti: “The dried seed powder of custard apple (Annona squamosa…”
Formed from insect + -icide
Proto-Indo-European *sek- ‘to cut’
…
Latin īnsecō ‘to cut into, to cut up’
Latin īnsectus ‘cut into, cut up, with a notched or divided body’
Latin īnsectum
Middle French insecte
English insect
Every English word from Latin īnsectus
Today it means
noun Any of various substances used to kill insects.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin īnsectus / insecticide