accurate (English)

Where does "accurate" come from?

The English adjective 'accurate' was borrowed into the language in the 1610s with the now obsolete sense 'done with care', later shifting by the 1650s to mean 'precise, exact'[1]. It derives from the Latin 'accūrātus', meaning 'done with care', which is the perfect passive participle of the Latin verb 'accūrō'[1]. This Latin verb combines 'ad-', meaning 'to, towards, at', with 'cūrō', meaning 'take care'[1]. The root noun 'cūra', meaning 'care', traces back through Proto-Italic to the Proto-Indo-European root '*kʷeys-', meaning 'to heed' or 'to perceive'[3][6]. English also shares a relation with the word 'cure' through these roots[1].

Open questions

The ultimate derivation of the Latin noun 'cura' from the Proto-Indo-European root '*kʷeys-' relies on reconstructed intermediate forms like Proto-Italic '*kʷoizā'. [3] [5] [6]

Full etymology tree

accurate (English), 'Telling the truth or giving a true result; exact; not defective or faulty.'
- borrowed accuratus (Latin), 'taken care of, prepared with care, having been taken care of'
  - derived accuro (Latin), 'to take care of, do something with care, attend or give attention to'
    - prefix ad- (Latin), 'to'
    - compound curo (Latin), 'to refresh (when occurring with corpus)'
      - derived cura (Latin), 'care, concern, thought'
        inherited *kʷoizā (Proto-Italic), 'care'
        inherited *kʷeys- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to see; to heed'
        derived *kʷey- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to pay'

Ancestors

*kʷeys- (Proto-Indo-European)
accuratus (Latin)
-ate (English)

Cognates and doublets

cure (English)

Descendants and derived words

accuracy (English)
accurately (English)
accurateness (English)
accurize (English)
biblically accurate (English)
hyperaccurate (English)
nonaccurate (English)
overaccurate (English)
superaccurate (English)
unaccurate (English)

Sources

Updated August 2026

More words starting with A

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris