eureka

The story

1. Ancient Greek · derived fromεὕρηκα“I have found”
2. English todayeureka

From Ancient Greek εὕρηκα (heúrēka, “I have found”), perfect active indicative first person singular of εὑρίσκω (heurískō, “to find”). Archimedes supposedly exclaimed this when he figured out how to determine the density of an object. First use appears c. 1603 in a text by Philemon Holland.

Words from the same roots