nomic (English)

Where does "nomic" come from?

The English adjective 'nomic', meaning customary or relating to a law[1], traces its roots back through Ancient Greek 'νομικός'[1], which means 'relating to laws'[2] and is derived from 'νόμος' meaning 'law, custom'[1]. This Ancient Greek noun builds upon 'νέμω'[3], meaning 'I distribute'[3], which descends from the Proto-Indo-European root '*ném-e-ti'[5] meaning 'to assign, allot, take'[5]. Ultimately, these historical stages connect the modern English word to ancient Indo-European roots associated with distribution and assignment.

Open questions

• The connection between the Proto-Indo-European root nem- and *h₁em- is possibly related rather than directly attested. [4]

Full etymology tree

• nomic (English), 'Customary; ordinary; applied to the usual spelling of a language, in distinction from strictly phonetic methods.'
  • derived νομικός (nomikós) (Ancient Greek), 'relating to laws, legal'
    • derived νόμος (nómos) (Ancient Greek), 'usage, custom'
      • derived νέμω (némō) (Ancient Greek), 'to deal out, distribute, dispense, to count, to divide by number'
        • inherited *némō (Proto-Hellenic)
          • inherited *ném-e-ti (Proto-Indo-European)
            • derived *h₁em- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to take'
      • suffix -ος (-os) (Ancient Greek), 'Added to verbal roots to form an o-grade action noun.'
    • suffix -ικός (-ikós) (Ancient Greek), 'Added to noun stems to form adjectives: of or pertaining to, in the manner of; -ic'

Ancestors

• νομικός (Ancient Greek)

Descendants and derived words

• nomically (English)

Sources

1. nomic (English) - Wiktionary
2. νομικός (nomikós) (Ancient Greek) - Wiktionary
3. νόμος (nómos) (Ancient Greek) - Wiktionary
4. nem- (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
5. νέμω (némō) (Ancient Greek) - Wiktionary

Updated September 2026

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