English
mutant
Mutant comes from Latin mūtāns ‘altering, changing, modifying, transforming’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- ‘to exchange’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meyth₂-‘to exchange’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmūtō‘move, change’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmūtāns‘altering, changing, modifying, transforming’
- Englishearliest quotation 1918mutant
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meyth₂-‘to exchange’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmūtō‘move, change’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmūtāns‘altering, changing, modifying, transforming’
- Englishearliest quotation 1918mutant
Earliest quotation: 1918, Paul Popenoe, Roswell Hill Johnson: “Furthermore, it is possible that there occasionally arises what…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- ‘to exchange’
miss, message, mad, mess, commit, premise, madden, intermittent, omit, misnomer, transmutation, commutation, transmute, 18 more
through Latin mūtō ‘move, change’
commute, mute, mutation, molt, immutable, moult, commutative, mutate, mutable, 12 more
Today it means
noun That which has mutated, with one or more new characteristics from a mutation.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- / mutant