Etymograph

English

aetiology

Aetiology comes from Ancient Greek αἰτῐολογῐ́ᾱ ‘giving the cause of something’, from λόγος ‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech,…’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- ‘to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning…’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leǵ-1‘to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning to speak by carefully selecting one's words’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lóǵos1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*lógos1reconstructed
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEλόγος1lógos‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech, story, debate, utterance, argument’
  5. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEαἰτῐολογῐ́ᾱ1aitĭologĭ́ā‘giving the cause of something’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEaetiologia1
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1999aetiology1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English aetiology
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1999, Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams: “I do not know where the idea first arose…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leǵ-Wiktionary, English aetiology‘to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning to speak by carefully selecting one's words’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lóǵosWiktionary, English aetiologyreconstructed
  3. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*lógosWiktionary, English aetiologyreconstructed
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEλόγοςWiktionary, English aetiologylógos‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech, story, debate, utterance, argument’
  5. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEαἰτῐολογῐ́ᾱWiktionary, English aetiologyaitĭologĭ́ā‘giving the cause of something’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEaetiologiaWiktionary, English aetiology
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1999aetiologyWiktionary, English aetiology. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1999, Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams: “I do not know where the idea first arose…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- ‘to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning…’

election, collection, technology, lesson, select, elite, eligible, collect, elect, elegant, coil, legion, negligence, catalogue, negligible, negligent, leach, diligent, lexicon, lexical, cull, epilogue, astrology, dialectic, alexia, lignite, lexis, lignin, cosmology, legation, gynecologist, ineligibility, dialogic, 149 more

through Proto-Hellenic *lógos

archaeological, pathological, astrological, homologous, etymology, pathophysiology, psychopathology, neurophysiology, histopathology, bacteriological, 101 more

through Ancient Greek λόγος ‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech,…’

logic, apology, trilogy, analogy, terminology, logos, sociology, pathology, physiology, monologue, pathologist, prologue, archaeologist, logistic, eulogy, epistemology, entomology, apologia, syllogism, bacteriology, bacteriologist, 110 more

Today it means

noun The establishment of a cause, origin, or reason for something.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “aetiology”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- / aetiology

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