Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “meter” come from?

Meter comes from French mètre, derived from Ancient Greek μέτρον meaning a measure or standard of measurement.

meter (English): A device that measures things; A parking meter or...

Definitions

  1. A device that measures things; A parking meter or...

Ancestry of “meter”, step by step

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

Words derived from “meter”

  • m
  • ms
  • micrometer
  • mth
  • tetrameter
  • decimeter
  • trimeter
  • submicrometer
  • pressuremeter
  • submeter
  • glossmeter
  • Madalyn
  • hypermeter
  • heptameter
  • mmole
  • monometer
  • picometer
  • submetering
  • octameter
  • myometer
  • femtometer
  • meterless
  • dosemeter
  • ratiometer
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tḗr →