Etymology

initialism

I1N1I1T1I1A1L1I1S1M3

Today it means: A term formed from the initial letters of several words or parts of words, which is itself pronounced letter by letter. Full definition →

English initial ← Latin initiāli ← Middle French initia
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁én
  2. Proto-Italic*en
  3. Proto-Italic*en-
  4. Proto-Indo-European*h₁ey-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éyti
  6. Proto-Italic*ejō
  7. Proto-Italic*eō
  8. Proto-Italic*eneō
  9. Latinineō
  10. Latininitium
  11. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
  12. Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
  13. Latininitiāli
  14. Middle Frenchinitia
  15. Latininitiāli
  16. Englishinitial
  17. English todayinitialism

From initial + -ism.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.