entomologie (French)
Where does "entomologie" come from?
The French term 'entomologie' finds its roots in the Greek 'entomon', meaning 'insect', which literally translates to 'cut in pieces' because of the visible segments on an insect body. This Greek concept passed into modern scientific language by combining the root with the suffix 'logia', referring to the study of a subject. It eventually entered French as 'entomologie' to describe the scientific study of insects.
Full etymology tree
- entomologie (French), 'entomology'
- derived entomo- (French)
- derived ἔντομον (éntomon) (Ancient Greek), 'insect'
- derived ἔντομος (éntomos) (Ancient Greek), 'cut in pieces, cut up'
- derived ἔντομον (éntomon) (Ancient Greek), 'insect'
- derived -logie (French), '-logy'
- derived λόγος (lógos) (Ancient Greek), 'that which is said: word, sentence, speech, story, debate, utterance, argument'
- inherited *lógos (Proto-Hellenic)
- inherited *leǵ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning to speak by carefully selecting one's words.'
- inherited *lógos (Proto-Hellenic)
- derived λόγος (lógos) (Ancient Greek), 'that which is said: word, sentence, speech, story, debate, utterance, argument'
- derived entomo- (French)
Descendants and derived words
- entomologique (French)
- entomologiste (French)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris