4 ms·

> From Middle English dette, dett, borrowed from Old French dete It seems to.

• mellavora 5y ago
  but wouldn't that Old French go back to a Latin root?
  • rhizome31 5y ago
    Apparently from debitum: https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=debt https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=debt English is sometimes closer to Latin than French, e.g. address ("ad" + "directiare") vs adresse in French
    • b3orn 5y ago
      Looks like another case of the English version gaining a letter to be closer to Latin after borrowing it originally from French: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/address#English https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/address#English
      • user-the-name 5y ago
        Here's an interesting article about that: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/why-is-debt-spelled-like-that https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/why-is-debt-sp...
        • GavinMcG 5y ago
          Good lord
  • GavinMcG 5y ago
    Sure, but the comment said it was borrowed into English from Old French, which was accurate. The point of the comment was that the borrowing wasn't directly from Latin (with a b) but indirectly from Old French (without a b). No one was claiming Latin was uninvolved.