Etymograph

English

sterication

Sterication comes from Ancient Greek στερεός ‘sold, firm, hard’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ster- ‘strong’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ster-1‘strong’reconstructed
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEστερεός2stereós‘sold, firm, hard’
  3. Englishtodaysterication2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek στερεός
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English sterication

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ster-Wiktionary, Ancient Greek στερεός‘strong’reconstructed
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEστερεόςWiktionary, English stericationstereós‘sold, firm, hard’
  3. EnglishtodaystericationWiktionary, English sterication

Formed from -ation

The story

Coined by mathematician Norman Johnson from Ancient Greek στερεός (stereós, “sold, firm, hard”) + -ation.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *ster- ‘strong’

still, start, street, strength, strongly, stronger, strongest, straw, stare, throttle, torpedo, stern, starve, strenuous, sterility, 17 more

through Ancient Greek στερεός ‘sold, firm, hard’

cholesterol, stereo, 6 more

Today it means

noun An operation in any dimension that cuts a regular polytope at its cells, its faces, its edges and its vertices, creating a new facet in place of each cell, each face, each edge and each vertex.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “sterication”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Ancient Greek στερεός. 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 *ster- / sterication

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