Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “system” come from?

System comes from Middle French systeme, from Ancient Greek σύστημα meaning a whole formed by combining parts, derived from σύν meaning together and steh₂- meaning to stand or place.

system (English): A collection of organized things; a whole...

Definitions

  1. A collection of organized things; a whole...

Ancestry of “system”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Late Latinsystemaharmony; musical scale; set of celestial objects;...
2Ancient Greekσύστημαa whole made of several parts or members, system;...
3Ancient Greek-μᾰ"suffix forming a noun denoting the result of an...
4Proto-Indo-European-mn̥Creates action nouns or result nouns from verbs

Words derived from “system”

  • systems
  • systemic
  • metric
  • ecosystem
  • systemically
  • photosystem
  • multisystem
  • systemwide
  • microsystem
  • portosystemic
  • cryptosystem
  • agroecosystem
  • multisystemic
  • nonmetric
  • intersystem
  • systemization
  • ecosystemic
  • macrosystem
  • chemometric
  • mesosystem
  • exosystem
  • ultrametric
  • hypermetric
  • systemize
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -mn̥ →