passion

At its core, passion names something undergone: it comes through Middle English passioun and Old French passion from Latin passiō, “suffering” or “enduring.” Latin formed passiō from patior, “to suffer,” with -tiō; patior is traced to the Proto-Indo-European root peh₁-, “to hurt.” Middle English took the word from Old French and, in part, from late Old English passion. The older sense of suffering remains especially visible in the Christian Passion, the suffering of Jesus; a 1543 English use refers to “Christes passion.” From this history of being deeply affected, the word also came to name powerful emotion, ardent commitment, and the object of such devotion.