Etymograph

English

taxonomy

Taxonomy comes from French taxinomie, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- ‘to touch’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-1‘to touch’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presenttaxinomie1as taxonomie
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2008taxonomy1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English taxonomy
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2008, Chris Anderson, The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Meth: “At the petabyte scale, information is not a matter…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-Wiktionary, English taxonomy‘to touch’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presenttaxinomieWiktionary, English taxonomyas taxonomie
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2008taxonomyWiktionary, English taxonomy. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2008, Chris Anderson, The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Meth: “At the petabyte scale, information is not a matter…”

Equivalent to taxo- + -nomy

Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- ‘to order, to establish, to rule’

Proto-Hellenic *tat͏̌t͏̌ō

Ancient Greek τᾰ́σσω ‘I arrange”, “I order’

Ancient Greek τάξις ‘arrangement, ordering’

English taxo-

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- ‘to touch’

contact, taste, integrity, integrate, contingent, tangible, attain, tame, contiguous, tangent, taxis, tactile, tact, contagion, tama, contaminate, talon, talus, ataxia, thwack, 30 more

Today it means

noun The science, technique, or process used to make a classification.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “taxonomy”. 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- / taxonomy

Shirt and support for this word