Etymograph

English

reluctant

Reluctant comes from Latin reluctāns ‘resisting’, from lū̆ctor ‘to struggle, strive, contend’, and ultimately from 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 CEreluctor‘to struggle against, oppose, resist’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEreluctāns‘resisting’present participle of reluctor
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1683reluctant

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 CEreluctor‘to struggle against, oppose, resist’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEreluctāns‘resisting’present participle of reluctor
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1683reluctant

Earliest quotation: 1683, A Sermon of Thanksgiving for the Happy D: “Whence we must infer, that the least stir of…”

Formed from -ant

Linked words

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

lock, leek, loke, 17 more

Today it means

adj Not wanting to take some action; unwilling to do something.

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

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

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