Etymology

morpheme

M3O1R1P3H4E1M3E1

Today it means: The smallest linguistic unit within a word that can carry a meaning. It may be a letter, a syllable, or otherwise. Full definition →

French morphème ← Ancient Greek μορφή
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromμορφή“shape, form”
  2. French · borrowed frommorphème
  3. English todaymorpheme

From French morphème. Ultimately from Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “shape, form”). By surface analysis, morph + -eme.

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekμορφή all →

morphmorphew-morph-morphic-morphy

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.