Etymology

e.g.

Today it means: An initialism used to introduce an illustrative example or short list of examples: for the sake of an example; for example. Full definition →

Latin exemplī grātiā
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromexemplī grātiā“for the sake of an example”
  2. English todaye.g.

The adverb is a terser form of ex. gr., both abbreviating Latin exemplī grātiā (“for the sake of an example”); e.g. was also used as an abbreviation in Latin. The noun is derived from the adverb.

Words from the same roots

Latinexemplī grātiā all →

exempli gratia

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.