thérapie (French)
Where does "thérapie" come from?
The French word 'thérapie' originates from the Ancient Greek 'therapeía,' which initially referred to the act of being an attendant or servant. This root is tied to 'therápōn,' meaning a comrade or aide, which eventually evolved in Greek to denote the act of healing and care. Over time, the term shifted from the humble concept of waiting on someone to the more specialized medical sense of providing therapy.
Full etymology tree
- thérapie (French), 'therapy'
- borrowed θεραπεία (therapeía) (Ancient Greek), 'a waiting on service'
- derived θεραπεύω (therapeúō) (Ancient Greek), 'to wait on, attend, serve'
- derived θεράπων (therápōn) (Ancient Greek), 'companion of lower rank, comrade, attendant, aide'
- inherited τέραμνον (téramnon) (Pre-Greek)
- suffix -εύω (-eúō) (Ancient Greek), 'Added to the stems of agent or other nouns in -εύς (-eús) to form a denominative verb of condition or activity: meaning "be x" or "do what x typically does"'
- derived θεράπων (therápōn) (Ancient Greek), 'companion of lower rank, comrade, attendant, aide'
- suffix -ία (-ía) (Ancient Greek), 'Added to stems of adjectives, rarely to the stems of verbs, and even more rarely to the stems of nouns, to form feminine abstract nouns'
- derived θεραπεύω (therapeúō) (Ancient Greek), 'to wait on, attend, serve'
- borrowed θεραπεία (therapeía) (Ancient Greek), 'a waiting on service'
Ancestors
Descendants and derived words
- thérapie de conversion (French)
- thérapie génique (French)
- thérapiste (French)
- terapi (Norwegian Bokmål)
- terapi (Norwegian Nynorsk)
- terapie (Romanian)
- терапия (Russian)
- terapi (Turkish)
Updated June 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris