consulter (French)

Where does "consulter" come from?

The French verb 'consulter' is a learned borrowing derived from the Latin 'cōnsultāre'[1]. This Latin term was formed by adding the suffix '-tō' to 'cōnsulō'[2], a word meaning 'deliberate' or 'consult'. The root 'cōnsulō' is further traced to a combination of 'con-' and '*sulo', which is itself a derivation of the Proto-Indo-European root '*selh₁-' meaning 'to take' or 'grab'[3].

Open questions

• The derivation of the Latin form *sulo from the Proto-Indo-European root *selh₁- remains a historical reconstruction. [3]

Full etymology tree

• consulter (French), 'to consult'
  • learned borrowing consultare (Latin), 'inflection of cōnsultō:'
    • derived consulo (Latin), 'to deliberate'
      • affix con- (Latin), 'Used in compounds to indicate a being or bringing together of several objects'
      • derived *sulo (Latin)
        • derived *selh₁- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to take'
    • affix -to (Latin), 'Forms frequentative verbs from existing verbs. In Latin, this means repeated or intense action. For examples, see here.'

Ancestors

• consulto (Latin)

Descendants and derived words

• consultant (French)
• consultant (French)
• consultant (French)
• konsilte (Haitian Creole)

Sources

1. consulter (French) - Wiktionary
2. consulto (Latin) - Wiktionary
3. consulo (Latin) - Wiktionary

Updated August 2026

More words starting with C

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