English
invasive
Invasive comes from Latin invāsus ‘entered’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *weh₂dʰ- ‘to go, to proceed’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weh₂dʰ-‘to go, to proceed’next step skipped: Latin invādō
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEinvāsus‘entered’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500invāsīvus
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600invasif
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500invasif‘of a weapon: offensive’
- Englishearliest quotation 1592invasive
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weh₂dʰ-‘to go, to proceed’next step skipped: Latin invādō
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEinvāsus‘entered’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500invāsīvus
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600invasif
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500invasif‘of a weapon: offensive’
- Englishearliest quotation 1592invasive
Earliest quotation: 1592, Thomas Nashe, The Arrainment and Execution of the Third Letter: “The Spanyards called their invaſive fleete againſt England the…”.
The story
The adjective is derived from Middle English invasif (‘of a weapon: offensive’), from Middle French invasif, Old French invasif (‘invasive’) (modern French invasif), from Medieval Latin invāsīvus, from Latin invāsus (‘entered; invaded’) + -īvus (suffix forming adjectives). Invāsus is the perfect passive participle of invādō (‘to enter; to invade’), from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside’) + vādō (‘to go; to rush; to walk’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂dʰ- (‘to go, proceed; to pass, traverse’)).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *weh₂dʰ- ‘to go, to proceed’
Today it means
adj Of or pertaining to invasion; offensive.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *weh₂dʰ- / invasive