Etymology

phonosemantic

P3H4O1N1O1S1E1M3A1N1T1I1C3

Today it means: Combining phonetic and semantic components, as with more than eighty percent of Chinese characters. (a way of creating Han characters by combining a component that indicates the meaning with a component that indicates the pronunciation) Full definition →

English semantic ← French sémantique ← Ancient Greek σημαντικός (sēmantikós)
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰeh₂-
  2. Proto-Hellenic*pʰōnā́
  3. Ancient Greekφωνή (phōnḗ)
  4. Englishphono-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeyh₂-?
  6. Proto-Indo-European*dʰyeh₂-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*dʰyéh₂mn̥
  8. Proto-Hellenic*tsā́mə?
  9. Ancient Greekσῆμᾰ (sêmă)
  10. Ancient Greekσημαίνω (sēmaínō)
  11. Ancient Greekσημαντικός (sēmantikós)
  12. Frenchsémantique
  13. Englishsemanticsbf.?
  14. Englishsemantic
  15. English todayphonosemantic

From phono- + semantic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.