Etymograph

English

reluctance

Reluctance comes from Latin relū̆ctor ‘to struggle against, oppose, resist’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *lewg- ‘to bend’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lewg-‘to bend’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElū̆ctor‘to struggle, strive, contend’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CErelū̆ctor‘to struggle against, oppose, resist’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1667reluctance

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lewg-‘to bend’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElū̆ctor‘to struggle, strive, contend’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CErelū̆ctor‘to struggle against, oppose, resist’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1667reluctance

Earliest quotation: 1667, John Milton, Book IX: “No more be mention’d then of violence / Against…”

Formed from -ance

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *lewg- ‘to bend’

lock, leek, loke, 17 more

Today it means

noun Unwillingness to do something.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *lewg- / reluctance

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