Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “barometer” come from?

Barometer comes from Ancient Greek βαρύς meaning heavy combined with Ancient Greek μέτρον meaning measure, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European roots for weight and the agent suffix -tḗr.

barometer (English): An instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure;...

Definitions

  1. An instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure;...

Ancestry of “barometer”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1English-meterUsed to form the names of measuring devices
2Frenchmètremetre/meter; first-person singular present...
3Latinmetruma measure
4Ancient Greekμέτρονsomething used to measure: measure, rule, weight;...
5Ancient Greek-τρονForms instrument nouns
6Proto-Hellenic-tronForms instrument nouns from verb stems
7Proto-Indo-European-tromForms nouns denoting a tool or instrument
8Proto-Indo-European-tḗrDerives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone...

Words derived from “barometer”

  • Eurobarometer
  • thermobarometer
  • geobarometer
  • hydrobarometer
  • telehydrobarometer
  • barometer
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tḗr →