Etymograph

English

supine

Supine comes from Latin supīnus ‘lying down with face upwards’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)upo ‘up, from below’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)upo‘up, from below’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsupīnus‘lying down with face upwards’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1653supine

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)upo‘up, from below’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsupīnus‘lying down with face upwards’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1653supine

Earliest quotation: 1653, Charles Hoole, Of the Supines of Simple Verbs: “And here also you may observ, that the syllable…”

The story

The adjective is borrowed from Latin supīnus, from *sup- (see sub (‘under’)) + -īnus (‘of, pertaining to’). The word is cognate with Catalan supí, Italian supino, Old French sovin, Middle French souvin, Anglo-Norman supin, Old Occitan sobin, sopin, Portuguese supino, Spanish supino. Partly displaced Old English upweard (‘upward, supine’), whence Modern English upward.

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *(s)upo

Today it means

adj Lying on its back.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)upo / supine

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