étymon (French)
Where does "étymon" come from?
French étymon is borrowed directly from Ancient Greek ἔτυμον, which meant “the true sense of a word according to its origin.” In Greek, this noun was originally the neuter form of ἔτυμος, meaning “true, real, actual.” So the word’s history moves from a general idea of truth in Ancient Greek to the specialized linguistic sense of an original or underlying word form in French.
Full etymology tree
- étymon (French), 'etymon'
- borrowed from ἔτυμον (Ancient Greek), 'the true sense or meaning of a word according to its origins and evolution, its etymology'
- derived from ἔτυμος (Ancient Greek), 'true, real, sure'
- derived from ἐτεός (Ancient Greek), 'in accordance with reality or one's honest perception of it: true, genuine'
- derived from ἔτυμος (Ancient Greek), 'true, real, sure'
- borrowed from ἔτυμον (Ancient Greek), 'the true sense or meaning of a word according to its origins and evolution, its etymology'
Ancestors
- ἔτυμον (Ancient Greek)
Updated March 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris