Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “parallelism” come from?

Parallelism comes from English parallel combined with the suffix -ισμός from Ancient Greek παρά, meaning beside or alongside, traced to Proto-Indo-European per-.

parallelism (English): The state or condition of being parallel;...

Definitions

  1. The state or condition of being parallel;...

Ancestry of “parallelism”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishparallelEqually distant from one another at all points;...
2Middle Frenchparallèle—
3Latinparallēlus—
4Ancient Greekπαράλληλοςbeside one another, side-by-side; parallel to or...
5Ancient Greekἀλλήλωνreferring back to a plural subject, and...
6Ancient Greekἄλλοςother, another, different, else; in combination...
7Ancient GreekκρίνωTo separate, divide, part, distinguish between...
8Proto-Hellenickríňňō—
9Proto-Indo-Europeankrinyéti—
10Proto-Indo-Europeankrey-to sift, separate, divide

Words derived from “parallelism”

  • nonparallelism
  • teleparallelism
  • pseudoparallelism
Every word from Proto-Indo-European krey- →