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tolerance

TOL-er-uhns · noun

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

Origin

Tolerance comes from Middle English toleraunce, borrowed from Old French tolerance, which traces to Latin tolerantia, meaning "endurance." That Latin noun grew out of tolerāns, the present participle of tolerō, "to endure."

Journey

The word has carried the sense of enduring or bearing up under something since its Latin root, passing that meaning through Old French and Middle English largely intact.

Related words

It shares its root with tolerō, the Latin verb "to endure," which also gave English words built on the idea of bearing or withstanding.

More words

From Old French

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