-ique (Old French)
Where does "-ique" come from?
The suffix '-ique' in Old French comes from a learned borrowing of the Latin suffix '-icus,' which was used to form adjectives. This Latin suffix itself traces back through Latin '-cus' to the Proto-Italic '*-kos,' and ultimately to the Proto-Indo-European '*-kos,' a root used to create descriptive terms. Over time, '-ique' has been adopted in French and later English to form adjectives, carrying forward its ancient function of turning words into descriptors.
Full etymology tree
- -ique (Old French), 'used to form adjectives; -ic'
- learned borrowing from -icus (Latin), 'of or pertaining to; belonging to; derived from; connected with: -ic, -ish'
- derived from -cus (Latin), 'suffixed to nouns, forms adjectives'
- inherited from *-kos (itc-pro)
- inherited from *-kos (Proto-Indo-European), 'Creates deadjectival and desubstantival adjectives denoting the characteristic of, typical of, pertaining to.'
- inherited from *-kos (itc-pro)
- derived from -cus (Latin), 'suffixed to nouns, forms adjectives'
- learned borrowing from -icus (Latin), 'of or pertaining to; belonging to; derived from; connected with: -ic, -ish'
Descendants and derived words
- -ic (Middle English)
- -ice (Middle English)
- -ik (Middle English)
- -ik (Middle English)
- -ike (Middle English)
- -ike (Middle English)
- -ique (Middle English)
- -ique (Middle French)
Updated February 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris