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filament

FIL-uh-ment · noun

LatinLate LatinMedieval LatinEnglish

Origin

English "filament" was borrowed from Medieval Latin fīlāmentum, which grew from Late Latin fīlō ("to spin, draw out in a long line"), itself rooted in Latin fīlum, meaning "thread."

Journey

The word traveled from a verb meaning to spin thread out in a line, to a Medieval Latin noun for the thing spun, arriving in English as "filament" — any thin, thread-like strand.

Related words

The Latin suffix -mentum, seen here in fīlāmentum, is the same ending found in many English words borrowed through Latin, marking the result of an action — in this case, the result of spinning.

More words

From Late Latin

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