English
homolog
Homolog comes from Ancient Greek ὁμόλογος ‘agreeing, of one mind’, from ὁμός ‘same, common, joint’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sem- ‘together, one’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sem-1‘together, one’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*somHós2‘same, alike’reconstructed
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*homós2reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEὁμός3‘same, common, joint’
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEὁμόλογος4homólogos‘agreeing, of one mind’
- Frenchc. 1600–presenthomologue4
- Englishearliest quotation 2008homolog4
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *somHós
- 2 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek ὁμός
- 3 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek ὁμόλογος
- 4 Wiktionary, English homolog
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2008, Chan-seok Jeong, Minho Lee: “Detecting remote homolog by protein similarity network.”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sem-Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *somHós‘together, one’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*somHósWiktionary, Ancient Greek ὁμός‘same, alike’reconstructed
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*homósWiktionary, Ancient Greek ὁμόςreconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEὁμόςWiktionary, Ancient Greek ὁμόλογος‘same, common, joint’
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEὁμόλογοςWiktionary, English homologhomólogos‘agreeing, of one mind’
- Frenchc. 1600–presenthomologueWiktionary, English homolog
- Englishearliest quotation 2008homologWiktionary, English homolog. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2008, Chan-seok Jeong, Minho Lee: “Detecting remote homolog by protein similarity network.”
Formed from homo- + -log
Proto-Indo-European *sem- ‘one, whole’
Proto-Indo-European *somHós ‘same, alike’
Proto-Hellenic *homós
Ancient Greek ὁμός ‘same’
English homo-
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *sem- ‘together, one’
some, single, similar, seem, simple, simply, soft, sam, simulation, sincerely, singular, resemble, assemble, resemblance, simultaneous, simulate, sincerity, anomaly, semblance, assimilate, synapse, insincere, hyphen, anomalous, simile, simulacrum, sempre, synchronise, 47 more
through Proto-Indo-European *somHós ‘same, alike’
through Ancient Greek ὁμός ‘same, common, joint’
Today it means
noun A phoneme, morpheme, or word shared by two languages or dialects, via cognation or naturalization.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “homolog”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Indo-European *somHós, Ancient Greek ὁμός, Ancient Greek ὁμόλογος. 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 *sem- / homolog