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 667Present-Day English15th century–today
verbal
Of, relating to, or consisting of words; also of verbs and, in one modern contrast, spoken rather than written.
“Verbal did not begin as a synonym for spoken: its older and wider center is words themselves.”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 Englishverbal
of, relating to, or consisting of words; of a verb; spoken rather than written
↑GO DEEPER
Middle English · Middle English, 15th centuryverbaleof or consisting of words
- SOUND CHANGE
- English verbal regularizes the Middle English final vowel while preserving the learned base and suffix.
- SEMANTIC CHANGE
- The relational word sense continues while verb-related and spoken-language senses develop alongside it.
- SCHOLAR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
- CONFIDENCE
- established
- CHRONOLOGY
- First known use is reported in the fifteenth century.
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.