aros (Welsh)
Where does "aros" come from?
The Welsh verb 'aros,' meaning to wait or stay, traces its roots back to the Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-, meaning 'to spend the night.' Through Proto-Celtic, this combined with a prefix meaning 'in front of' to evolve into the Middle Welsh 'arhos.' Over time, the 's' sound, which originally appeared only in specific verbal nouns, gradually spread to all forms of the verb through linguistic analogy.
Full etymology tree
- aros (Welsh), 'to wait, to stay'
- inherited arhos (Middle Welsh), 'to wait, wait for'
- inherited *ɸarewostom (Proto-Celtic)
- compound *ɸare (Proto-Celtic), 'in front of'
- inherited *ɸari (Proto-Celtic)
- inherited *pr̥h₂i (Proto-Indo-European)
- derived *preh₂- (Proto-Indo-European), 'before, in front'
- derived *per- (Proto-Indo-European), 'before, in front'
- derived *preh₂- (Proto-Indo-European), 'before, in front'
- inherited *pr̥h₂i (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *ɸari (Proto-Celtic)
- compound *woseti (Proto-Celtic), 'to spend the night'
- inherited *h₂wes- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to dwell, live, reside'
- compound *ɸare (Proto-Celtic), 'in front of'
- inherited *ɸarewostom (Proto-Celtic)
- inherited arhos (Middle Welsh), 'to wait, wait for'
Ancestors
- arhos (Middle Welsh)
- *ɸare (Proto-Celtic)
- *h₂wes- (Proto-Indo-European)
Descendants and derived words
- arhosfa (Welsh)
- arhosiad (Welsh)
- arhosle (Welsh)
- arhosol (Welsh)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris