Etymology

polysemy

P3O1L1Y4S1E1M3Y4

Today it means: The quality characteristic of a polyseme, a sign (such as a word or symbol) that has multiple meanings (senses), often including multiple similar ones. Full definition →

English polyseme ← Ancient Greek σῆμα (sêma) ← Proto-Hellenic *tsā́mə?
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*pleh₁-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*polh₁ús
  3. Ancient Greekπολῠ́ς (polŭ́s)
  4. Englishpoly-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeyh₂-?
  6. Proto-Indo-European*dʰyeh₂-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*dʰyéh₂mn̥
  8. Proto-Hellenic*tsā́mə?
  9. Ancient Greekσῆμα (sêma)
  10. Englishseme
  11. Englishpolyseme
  12. English todaypolysemy

From polyseme + -y.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.