Most
/moʊst/noun
Greatest in amount, degree, or number; or the majority of.
Did you know?Most goes back to the same old Germanic superlative system as words like best and least, where endings—not prefixes—once did the heavy grammatical magic.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*meh₁-
“To measure; to be great in size or amount”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*maistaz
“Greatest, most”
Old English
English
mǣst
“Greatest, largest, most”
Middle English
English
most
“Greatest in amount, degree, or number”
Modern English
English
most
“Greatest in amount, degree, or number; the majority of”