psephology

The story

1. Ancient Greekψῆφος (psêphos)
2. Englishpseph-
3. Englishpsepho-
4. Proto-Indo-European*leǵ-
5. Proto-Indo-European*lóǵos
6. Proto-Hellenic*lógos
7. Ancient Greekλόγος (lógos)
8. English todaypsephology

From psepho- (“pebble”) + -ology (“study of”), drawing on the various definitions of Ancient Greek ψῆφος (psêphos, “pebble used for reckoning; pebble used for casting a vote”). The sense relating to elections was coined in 1948 by Frank Hardie.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• From 1952 The predictive or statistical study of elections.