symbole (French)

Where does "symbole" come from?

French symbole is a learned borrowing from Latin symbolum “a symbol, token,” which itself was borrowed from Ancient Greek σύμβολον (súmbolon). In Greek the word literally meant something “thrown together,” from συν- “together” plus βάλλω “to throw,” and it referred to a token or sign used to recognize or infer something. Through Latin into French, that concrete “token” sense broadened into the general idea of a symbol in all its modern meanings.

Full etymology tree

• symbole (French), 'symbol (all meanings)'
  • learned borrowing from symbolum (Latin), 'symbol, token'
    • borrowed from σύμβολον (Ancient Greek), 'a sign or token by which one infers a thing'
      • derived from συμβάλλω (Ancient Greek), 'to bring together, unite'
        • prefix συν- (Ancient Greek), 'with, together, co-, syn-'
          • derived from σύν (Ancient Greek), 'beside, with'
        • compound of βάλλω (Ancient Greek), 'to throw, cast, hurl'
          • inherited from *gʷəlnō (Proto-Hellenic)
            • inherited from *gʷl̥-ne-h₁- (Proto-Indo-European)
              • derived from *gʷelH- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to throw, reach, pierce; to hit by throwing'

Direct ancestors

• symbolum (Latin)
• σύμβολον (Ancient Greek)

Updated March 2026

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