English
optimal
Optimal may come from Latin bonus ‘best’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbonusas optimus‘best’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2014optimal
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbonusas optimus‘best’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2014optimal
Earliest quotation: 2014, Susan Stafford Kelly, What Say You: “Herewith, a brief primer in speaking basic North Carolinaese,…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- ‘to fit’
down, town, tool, teen, dynamic, dynasty, tow, dun, dynamo, dynastic, tine, taw, beaucoup, beauteous, 92 more
through Proto-Italic *dwenos ‘good’
beautiful, beauty, rebellion, boo, beau, rebellious, bello, rebelling, benefice, bauble, 37 more
through Archaic Latin duenos
ben, rebel, beneficial, beneficiary, revel, bene, bellicose, 38 more
through Latin bonus ‘best’
Today it means
adj The best, most favourable or desirable, especially under some restriction.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin bonus / optimal