Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “biomass” come from?

Biomass is a blend of English bio-, from Ancient Greek βίος (bios, life), and English mass, from Latin massa, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European gʷeih₃w-.

biomass (English): The total mass of a living thing or part thereof,...

Definitions

  1. The total mass of a living thing or part thereof,...

Ancestry of “biomass”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishMassThe principal liturgical service of the Church,...
2Middle EnglishmesseMass; The Eucharist; Holy Communion; The act of...
3Old Englishmæssemass
4Vulgar LatinmessaEucharist, dismissal; Eucharist; dismissal;...
5LatinmissaMass; Christian eucharistic liturgy; nominative...
6Latinmissumaccusative supine of mittō; inflection of...
7Latinmittō—
8Proto-Italicmeitō—
9Proto-Indo-Europeanmeyth₂-to hurt; to exchange, remove; to replace, to...

Words derived from “biomass”

  • nonbiomass
  • phytobiomass
Every word from Proto-Indo-European meyth₂- →