Etymon

//ˈɛt.ə.mɑn// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The original or earlier form of an inherited or borrowed word, affix, or morpheme either from an earlier period in a language's development, from an ancestral language, or from a foreign language.

    "Here such cases as ghost words & misglosses, secondary semantics, different etymologies for one etymon or one etymology for different etyma, and finally semantic overpermissiveness are discussed."

  2. 2
    a simple form inferred as the common basis from which related words in several languages can be derived by linguistic processes wordnet

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἔτυμον (étumon, “the true sense of a word according to its origin”), from ἔτυμος (étumos, “true, real, actual”).

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