Etymology

semi-

Today it means: half Full definition →

Latin sēmi- ← Proto-Indo-European *sēmi
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*sem-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*sēmi
  3. Latinsēmi-
  4. English todaysemi-

Borrowed from Latin semi- (“half”), from Proto-Indo-European *sēmi/*sēmi-. Cognate to English sam, and to hemi- (via Ancient Greek).

Words from the same roots

Latinsemi- all →

semibrevesemisomnia

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.