comun (Old French)
Where does "comun" come from?
The Old French adjective 'comun', meaning 'common', descends from the Latin adjective 'communis'[1]. This Latin form traces further back through Old Latin 'co(m)moinis' and Proto-Italic '*kommoinis' to the Proto-Indo-European root '*ḱom-moy-ni-s', which originates from '*mey-', meaning 'to change'[2].
Open questions
- The Proto-Italic and Old Latin intermediate forms as well as the Proto-Indo-European ancestral root are reconstructed linguistic forms. [2] [3]
Full etymology tree
- comun (Old French), 'common'
- inherited communis (Latin), 'common, commonplace, ordinary, general, universal, shared, shared alike, of both sides, belonging to two or more together'
- inherited co(m)moinis (Old Latin)
- inherited *kommoinis (Proto-Italic), 'common'
- inherited *ḱom-moy-ni-s (Proto-Indo-European)
- derived *mey- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to strengthen'
- inherited *ḱom-moy-ni-s (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *kommoinis (Proto-Italic), 'common'
- inherited co(m)moinis (Old Latin)
- inherited communis (Latin), 'common, commonplace, ordinary, general, universal, shared, shared alike, of both sides, belonging to two or more together'
Ancestors
Descendants and derived words
- commun (French)
- comen (Middle English)
- comen (Middle English)
- common (Middle English)
- commone (Middle English)
- commun (Middle English)
- commune (Middle English)
- commune (Middle English)
- commuyn (Middle English)
- commyn (Middle English)
- comon (Middle English)
- comone (Middle English)
Sources
Updated August 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris