amitié (French)

Where does "amitié" come from?

The French noun 'amitié', meaning friendship, is inherited from Old French 'amistiet'[1]. This form traces back to the reconstructed Vulgar Latin accusative '*amīcitātem'[1][3], an abstract noun built from the Latin adjective or noun 'amīcus', meaning 'friend'[1][4]. Ultimate origins connect 'amīcus' to the Latin verb 'amō', meaning 'to love'[2], which descends from Proto-Italic '*amō'[5] and potentially from a Proto-Indo-European root signifying 'to seize' or 'to take hold'[6].

Open questions

• The intermediate Vulgar Latin ancestor '*amīcitātem' is an unattested, reconstructed form. [1] [3]
• The derivation of the Latin ending in 'amīcus' from Proto-Indo-European instrumental and suffix elements is proposed with uncertainty. [2]
• The connection of Proto-Italic '*amō' to Proto-Indo-European '*h₃emh₃-' relies on a hypothesized semantic shift from taking hold to loving. [6]

Full etymology tree

• amitié (French), 'friendship, amity'
  • inherited amistiet (Old French), 'friendship'
    • inherited *amicitatem (Latin), 'friendship'
      • derived amicus (Latin), 'friendly, well-disposed, amicable'
        • affix amo (Latin), 'to love'
          • inherited *amō (Proto-Italic), 'to get hold of'
            • derived *h₃emh₃- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to grab, to grasp, to seize, to take hold, tackle, touch'
        • suffix -icus (Latin), 'used to form nouns from verbs or nouns'

Ancestors

• amistiet (Old French)
• amicitas (Latin)
• amicus (Latin)

Descendants and derived words

• se lier d'amitié (French)

Sources

1. amitié (French) - Wiktionary
2. amicus (Latin) - Wiktionary
3. amistiet (Old French) - Wiktionary
4. amicitas (Latin) - Wiktionary
5. amo (Latin) - Wiktionary
6. amō (Proto-Italic) - Wiktionary
7. amicitatem (Latin) - Wiktionary

Updated September 2026

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