myth (English)

Where does "myth" come from?

The word 'myth' entered English in the 19th century from the Ancient Greek 'mūthos', which originally meant a 'word', 'speech', or 'account'. While some linguists trace it back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to complain or care about', others suggest it might even have roots in the Egyptian term 'mdwt', referring to speech or an affair. Over time, the meaning evolved from a simple spoken story to its modern sense of a sacred narrative or a widely held but fictional belief.

Full etymology tree

• myth (English), 'A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc.'
  • borrowed μῦθος (Ancient Greek), 'something said: word, speech, conversation'
    • inherited *mewHdʰ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to complain or care about something'
    • derived μῡ (Ancient Greek)
    • borrowed mdwt (Egyptian), 'words, speech, things said'
      • compound mdwj (Egyptian), 'to speak (+ n or ḫr or ḫft: to; + ḥr: about; + ḥnꜥ or m-dj or jrm: with (someone); + m: with (the mouth))'
      • suffix -t (Egyptian), 'Used to form feminine singular forms of nouns.'
        • inherited *-t (Proto-Afroasiatic), 'Marks nouns as feminine'

Direct ancestors

• μῦθος (Ancient Greek)
• mythos (English)

Updated May 2026

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