adageyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[adage 词源字典]
adage: [16] Adage was borrowed, via French, from Latin adagium ‘maxim, proverb’. This seems to have been formed from a variant of aio ‘I say’ plus the prefīx ad- ‘to’. In the 16th and 17th centuries an alternative version, adagy, existed.
[adage etymology, adage origin, 英语词源]
adage (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"brief, familiar proverb," 1540s, Middle French adage, from Latin adagium "adage, proverb," apparently from adagio, from ad- "to" (see ad-) + *agi-, root of aio "I say," from PIE *ag- "to speak." But Tucker thinks the second element is rather ago "set in motion, drive, urge."