Etymograph

English

trilogy

Trilogy comes from Ancient Greek τριλογία, from λόγος ‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech,…’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- ‘to collect (words)’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leǵ-1‘to collect (words)’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*lógos1reconstructed
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEλόγος2‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech, story, debate, utterance, argument’
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτριλογία3trilogía
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtrilogia3
  6. Englishearliest quotation 2012trilogy3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek λόγος
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek τριλογία
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English trilogy
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2012, Scott Tobias, The Hunger Games: “That such a safe adaptation could come of The…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leǵ-Wiktionary, Ancient Greek λόγος‘to collect (words)’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*lógosWiktionary, Ancient Greek λόγοςreconstructed
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEλόγοςWiktionary, Ancient Greek τριλογία‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech, story, debate, utterance, argument’
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτριλογίαWiktionary, English trilogytrilogía
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtrilogiaWiktionary, English trilogy
  6. Englishearliest quotation 2012trilogyWiktionary, English trilogy. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2012, Scott Tobias, The Hunger Games: “That such a safe adaptation could come of The…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- ‘to collect (words)’

election, collection, technology, lesson, select, elite, collect, eligible, elect, elegant, legion, negligence, catalogue, coil, negligible, negligent, leach, lexicon, diligent, lexical, cull, astrology, dialectic, legation, epilogue, alexia, cosmology, lignite, lexis, lignin, gynecologist, ineligibility, dialogic, 149 more

through Proto-Hellenic *lógos

archaeological, pathological, homologous, etymology, astrological, pathophysiology, psychopathology, neurophysiology, histopathology, bacteriological, 101 more

through Ancient Greek λόγος ‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech,…’

logic, apology, sociology, terminology, physiology, analogy, pathology, logos, monologue, prologue, archaeologist, pathologist, logistic, epistemology, eulogy, entomology, etiology, apologia, bacteriology, syllogism, bacteriologist, 110 more

Today it means

noun A set of three connected works—usually dramas, literary pieces, films, or musical compositions—all related by theme, characters, or setting.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “trilogy”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Ancient Greek λόγος, Ancient Greek τριλογία. 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 *leǵ- / trilogy

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