semantic

The story

1. French · borrowed fromsémantique
2. Ancient Greek · learned borrowing fromσημαντικός“giving signs; significant”
3. English todaysemantic

As noted by the OED, first attested in 1665 as semantick (“relating to divination through the interpretation of signs”, adjective), a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek σημαντικός (sēmantikós, “giving signs; significant”), seemingly coined by English religious scholar and clergyman John Spencer. The linguistic sense is not attested until 1890, where it is an independent academic borrowing from French sémantique, or possibly a back-formation from semantics, derived around the same time from the same French lemma, originally la Sémantique (“[the study of] semantics”, noun), coined transparently from the aforementioned Greek source by French philologist Michel Bréal in 1883 at his inception of the field. Popularized at the beginning of the 20th century, following the publication of the English translation of Bréal's 1897 book Essai de sémantique. The colloquial and computer science senses are extended from that in linguistics.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from late 19th c. Of or relating to semantics or the meanings of words.