English
prolix
Prolix comes from Latin prōlixus ‘stretched out’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEprōlixus‘stretched out’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400prolixe
- Englishearliest quotation 1831prolix
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEprōlixus‘stretched out’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400prolixe
- Englishearliest quotation 1831prolix
Earliest quotation: 1831, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley: “Give me but the luxury of answering to one…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *wleykʷ- ‘moist, to wet’
Today it means
adj Tediously lengthy; dwelling on trivial details.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin prōlixus / prolix