examen (French)
Where does "examen" come from?
The French noun 'examen' is a learned borrowing from Latin 'exāmen'[1]. The Latin term comes from the earlier form '*exagmen', which is built from the prefix 'ex-' meaning 'out', the verb 'agō' meaning 'to drive', and the noun-forming suffix '-men' that indicates the result of an action[2]. The verb 'agō' traces back through Proto-Italic '*agō' to the Proto-Indo-European root '*h₂eǵ-' meaning 'to drive'[3][4][5]. It also serves as a doublet of the French word 'essaim'.
Open questions
- The intermediate form '*exagmen' is a reconstructed stage in Latin. [2]
- The Proto-Italic and Proto-Indo-European ancestral forms are reconstructed by linguists. [3] [4] [5]
Full etymology tree
- examen (French), 'examination, inspection, study, analysis'
- learned borrowing examen (Latin), 'swarm of bees; crowd'
- prefix ex- (Latin), 'out, away'
- derived ago (Latin), 'to act, to behave'
- inherited *agō (Proto-Italic), 'to drive'
- inherited *h₂éǵeti (Proto-Indo-European), 'to be driving'
- derived *h₂eǵ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'goat'
- inherited *h₂éǵeti (Proto-Indo-European), 'to be driving'
- inherited *agō (Proto-Italic), 'to drive'
- suffix -men (Latin), 'forms nouns, usually from verbs, generally describing the means, instrument, or result of an action'
- learned borrowing examen (Latin), 'swarm of bees; crowd'
Ancestors
- examen (Latin)
Cognates and doublets
Sources
- examen (French) - Wiktionary
- examen (Latin) - Wiktionary
- ago (Latin) - Wiktionary
- agō (Proto-Italic) - Wiktionary
- h₂éǵeti (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
Updated September 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris