thesis

The story

1. Ancient Greek · derived fromθέσεις
2. Latin · borrowed fromthesēs
3. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*dʰeh₁-“to do; to place, put”
4. Ancient Greek · derived fromθέσῐς“arrangement, placement, setting; conclusion, position, thesis; lowering of the voice”
5. Latin · borrowed fromthesis“proposition, thesis; lowering of the voice”
6. Middle English · inherited fromthesis“lowering of the voice”
7. English todaythesis

From Late Middle English thesis (“lowering of the voice”) and also borrowed directly from its etymon Latin thesis (“proposition, thesis; lowering of the voice”), from Ancient Greek θέσῐς (thésĭs, “arrangement, placement, setting; conclusion, position, thesis; lowering of the voice”), from τῐ́θημῐ (tĭ́thēmĭ, “to place, put, set; to put down in writing; to consider as, regard”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do; to place, put”)) + -σῐς (-sĭs, suffix forming abstract nouns or nouns of action, process, or result). The English word is a doublet of deed. Sense 1.1 (“proposition or statement supported by arguments”) is adopted from antithesis. Sense 1.4 (“initial stage of reasoning”) was first used by the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), and later applied to the dialectical method of his countryman, the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831). The plural form theses is borrowed from Latin thesēs, from Ancient Greek θέσεις (théseis).

Words from the same roots