RECURSIVE ANCESTOR EXPLORER
GLOBAL GRAPH ↗NORTH-STAR FEATURE / ROOT OF THE ROOT
WORD → PARENT → PARENT → UNKNOWNGO TO
THE ROOT.
Do not stop at the first ancestor. Follow every cited route—through compounds, reconstructions, and disagreements—until human knowledge actually stops.
START / NODE 1002Present-Day English14th century–today
humility
Freedom from pride or arrogance; the quality or condition of being humble.
“Humility did not begin as modern advice to think less of yourself. Classical Latin humilitās named literal lowness, low stature, social insignificance, and even abjectness. Ecclesiastical Latin recast the same noun as the positive virtue opposed to pride before French and English inherited it.”OPEN COMPLETE WORD DOSSIER ↗
EVERY REVIEWED PARENT, NOT ONE EDITORIAL PATH
FOLLOW EVERY BRANCH.
Compound components and competing routes stay separate. Every arrow retains its sound change, semantic change, scholar, confidence, and exact sources.
01
PARENT ROUTES1 REVIEWED RELATIONSHIP
Present-Day Englishhumility
freedom from pride or arrogance; the quality or state of being humble
↑GO DEEPER
Middle English · Middle English, 14th–15th centurieshumilitehumility; humble disposition or conduct
- SOUND CHANGE
- Middle English humilite continues as humility with modern English -ity spelling and pronunciation.
- SEMANTIC CHANGE
- The inherited humble-quality sense continues into the current freedom-from-pride center.
- SCHOLAR
- American Heritage Dictionary Editors · Merriam-Webster Editors
- CONFIDENCE
- established — The sources identify the form sequence but do not date one exact spelling replacement.
- CHRONOLOGY
- Merriam-Webster reports English use in the fourteenth century.
2 CITATIONSHumility — Definition, Use, and First Known UseDefinition and First Known Use: 14th century Humility — American Heritage DictionaryEtymology: Middle English humilite AUDIT CANONICAL EDGE 1004 ↗
Documents the current sense and broad English horizon.
ORIGINAL ↗Publishes the immediate Middle English form.
ORIGINAL ↗THE ASTERISK IS A PROMISE
RECONSTRUCTION IS
NOT INSCRIPTION.
Crossing into a starred form changes the evidence class. The interface marks that crossing, preserves confidence, and never manufactures the next root to make the picture look complete.