diplom (Danish)

Where does "diplom" come from?

The Danish word 'diplom' traces its roots back to the Ancient Greek word 'δίπλωμα' (díplōma), which literally meant a 'folded paper.' This term evolved from a combination of the word for 'two' and a root related to folding, reflecting how official documents were historically creased. The word eventually passed into Latin and later into French as 'diplôme' before being adopted into Danish to describe a formal certificate.

Full etymology tree

• diplom (Danish), 'a diploma'
  • borrowed diplôme (French), 'diploma (document issued by an educational institution testifying that the recipient has earned a degree or has successfully completed a particular course of study)'
    • learned borrowing diplōma (Latin), 'letter of recommendation'
      • borrowed δίπλωμα (díplōma) (Ancient Greek), 'something double'
        • compound διπλόω (diplóō) (Ancient Greek), 'to repeat a process'
          • derived διπλόος (diplóos) (Ancient Greek), 'Double'
            • compound δίς (dís) (Ancient Greek), 'twice, doubly, again'
              • inherited *dwís (Proto-Indo-European), 'twice, doubly'
                • derived *dwóh₁ (Proto-Indo-European), 'two'
        • suffix -μα (-ma) (Ancient Greek), 'Added to verbal stems to form neuter nouns denoting the effect or result of an action, a particular instance of an action, or the object of an action'
          • inherited *-mn̥ (Proto-Indo-European), 'Creates action nouns or result nouns from verbs.'

Ancestors

• diplôme (French)
• diploma (Latin)
• δίπλωμα (Ancient Greek)

Updated June 2026

More words starting with D

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris