English
taxis
Taxis comes from Ancient Greek τάξις ‘arrangement, order’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-1‘to order, to establish, to rule’reconstructed
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*tat͏̌t͏̌ō1reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτᾰ́σσω2‘I arrange”, “I order’
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτάξις3táxis‘arrangement, order’
- Englishtodaytaxis3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek τάσσω
- 2 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek τάξις
- 3 Wiktionary, English taxis
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-Wiktionary, Ancient Greek τάσσω‘to order, to establish, to rule’reconstructed
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*tat͏̌t͏̌ōWiktionary, Ancient Greek τάσσωreconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτᾰ́σσωWiktionary, Ancient Greek τάξις‘I arrange”, “I order’
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτάξιςWiktionary, English taxistáxis‘arrangement, order’
- EnglishtodaytaxisWiktionary, English taxis
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- ‘to order, to establish, to rule’
contact, taste, integrity, integrate, contingent, tangible, attain, tame, contiguous, tangent, tactile, contagion, tact, talon, contaminate, taxonomy, talus, thwack, 29 more
through Proto-Hellenic *tat͏̌t͏̌ō
Today it means
noun The directional movement of an organism in response to a stimulus.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “taxis”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Ancient Greek τάσσω, Ancient Greek τάξις. 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 *teh₂g- / taxis