English
subject
Subject comes from Middle English subget, from Old French suget, from Latin subiectus ‘lying under; subject’, past participle of subiciō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsubiciō‘throw’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsubiectus‘lying under or near’past participle of subiciō
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400suget
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500subget
- Englishearliest quotation 1590subject
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsubiciō‘throw’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsubiectus‘lying under or near’past participle of subiciō
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400suget
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500subget
- Englishearliest quotation 1590subject
Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto XI: “Long he them bore above the subject plain”.
A compound of sub ‘under, at the foot of’ + iaciō ‘throw, hurl’
Proto-Indo-European *upó ‘up; from below’
Proto-Italic *supo ‘under’
Latin sub ‘under, at the foot of’
Proto-Indo-European *(H)ih₁-k-(i-)
Proto-Italic *jak-i-
Latin iaciō ‘throw, hurl’
Every English word from Latin subiciō
Another origin of subject
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsubiciō‘throw, lay, place’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsubiectus‘a subject, an inferior’past participle of subiciō
- Englishtodaysubject
Another origin of subject
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500subiciō‘throw, lay, place’
- Medieval Latin, derivedc. 600–1500subiectōiterative of subiciō
- Englishtodaysubject
Today it means
adj Likely to be affected by or to experience something; liable.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin subiciō / subject