legendary

The word 'legendary' has a fascinating journey from a concrete instruction to an abstract quality of fame. Its core, 'legend', stems from the Latin verb 'legere', meaning "to gather, choose, to read." In Medieval Latin, 'legenda' referred specifically to the stories of saints' lives that were "to be read" aloud on their feast days. The suffix '-ary', from Latin '-arius', attaches to nouns to form adjectives meaning "relating to." Thus, 'legendary' originally meant "pertaining to stories from a legend." Over centuries, as these stories often featured extraordinary heroes and miraculous events, the meaning expanded from simply "based on legend" to describe anything or anyone achieving a similar, almost mythical, level of fame and admiration in the real world.

Structure: legend (story) + ary (adjective suffix) 'legend' originates from Medieval Latin 'legenda', meaning "things to be read," from Latin 'legere', "to read." '-ary' is an adjective-forming suffix from Latin '-arius', indicating "pertaining to or connected with."