Etymograph

English

diegesis

Diegesis comes from Ancient Greek διήγησις ‘narration’, from ἡγέομαι ‘to go before, precede’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- ‘to seek out’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*seh₂g-1‘to seek out’reconstructed
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἡγέομαι2‘to go before, precede’
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEδιηγέομαι3diēgéomai‘I narrate’
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEδιήγησις3diḗgēsis‘narration’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1985diegesis3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek ἡγέομαι, which cites Beekes
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek διηγέομαι
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English diegesis
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1985, Bill Nichols, Movies and Methods: An Anthology: “A novel like Sterne′s Tristram Shandy, however, simply embeds…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*seh₂g-Wiktionary, Ancient Greek ἡγέομαι, which cites Beekes‘to seek out’reconstructed
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἡγέομαιWiktionary, Ancient Greek διηγέομαι‘to go before, precede’
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEδιηγέομαιWiktionary, English diegesisdiēgéomai‘I narrate’
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEδιήγησιςWiktionary, English diegesisdiḗgēsis‘narration’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1985diegesisWiktionary, English diegesis. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1985, Bill Nichols, Movies and Methods: An Anthology: “A novel like Sterne′s Tristram Shandy, however, simply embeds…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- ‘to seek out’

seek, sake, sucker, soc, saya, beseech, sagittal, sagacity, presage, 18 more

through Ancient Greek ἡγέομαι ‘to go before, precede’

hegemony, hegemon, 4 more

Today it means

noun A narration or recitation.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “diegesis”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Ancient Greek ἡγέομαι, Ancient Greek διηγέομαι. 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 *seh₂g- / diegesis

Shirt and support for this word