The story
- Middle English · inherited fromelementen
- Latin · derived fromelementum“a first principle, element, rudiment”
- Old French · derived fromelement
- Middle English · derived fromelement
- English todayelement
From Middle English element, from Old French element, from Latin elementum (“a first principle, element, rudiment”) (see further etymology there). The verb is from Middle English elementen, from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.