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etymon (ET-uh-mon) - n., the original or earlier form of an inherited or borrowed word, affix, or morpheme.
Which can be either from an earlier period in a language's development, from an ancestral language, or from a foreign language. For example, the etymon of candid is Latin candidus, which originally meant white. When I give an etymology ("knowledge of etymons"), the etymon is the "from" word. The etymon of etymon is Ancient Greek étumon, "true sense (of a word)", from étumos, true/real/actual -- by which we can deduce that the Ancient Greeks did not approve of linguistic drift or linguistic innovations.
---L.
Which can be either from an earlier period in a language's development, from an ancestral language, or from a foreign language. For example, the etymon of candid is Latin candidus, which originally meant white. When I give an etymology ("knowledge of etymons"), the etymon is the "from" word. The etymon of etymon is Ancient Greek étumon, "true sense (of a word)", from étumos, true/real/actual -- by which we can deduce that the Ancient Greeks did not approve of linguistic drift or linguistic innovations.
---L.
