English

needs

/niːdz/
Either directly or indirectly preceded or followed by an auxiliary verb, often must: of necessity or need; necessarily, indispensably.

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    Origin

    From Middle English nedes (“of necessity, necessarily; inevitably, unavoidably”) [and other forms], from Old English nēdes, nīedes (“of necessity; not willingly”), from nīed + -es (suffix forming adverbs from nouns).

    The English word is equivalent to need + -'s (possessive marker) and hence to need + -s (suffix forming adverbs).

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • rootProto-Indo-European*neh₂w- “death”
    • inheritedMiddle Englishnedes “of necessity, necessarily; inevitably, unavoidably”
      • inheritedOld Englishnēdes
    • surface analysisEnglishneed “A requirement for something; something needed.”
    • suffixEnglish-'s “A possessive marker, indicating that an object belongs to the noun or noun phrase bearing the marke…”
      • inheritedMiddle English-s
        • inheritedOld English-es “-'s”
    • suffixEnglish-s “Used to form regular plurals of nouns.”
      • inheritedMiddle English-es “adverbial ending”
        • inheritedOld English-as
        • inheritedOld English-es, -as
      • derivedEnglish-sy “Suffix forming nouns or adjectives, sometimes diminutive and usually informal or jocular.”
        • suffixEnglish-y “Added to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives meaning “having the quality of”, either “involving…”

    Sources