Where does “telegraphy” come from?
Telegraphy comes from Ancient Greek τῆλε (tēle, "far") and γράφω (gráphō, "to write"), ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European roots kʷel- and gerebh- meaning distant communication through written marks.
telegraphy (English): communication at a distance by means of the...
Definitions
- communication at a distance by means of the...
Ancestry of “telegraphy”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Telegraph | any process for transmitting arbitrarily long messages over a long distance using a symbolic code |
| 2 | French | télégraphe | telegraph |
| 3 | French | télé- | tele- |
| 4 | Ancient Greek | τῆλε | far off, afar, far away |
| 5 | Latin | commūnicāre | — |
| 6 | Latin | commūnis | common, commonplace, ordinary, general, universal, shared, shared alike, of both sides, belonging to two or more together |
| 7 | Old Latin | com(m)oinis | — |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | kommoinis | common |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱom-moy-ni- | held in common |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 12 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 13 | German | kitt | putty certain kinds of cement used for fixing e.g. window panes |
| 14 | Old High German | kuti | — |
| 15 | Proto-West Germanic | kwidu | gum, resin |
| 16 | Proto-Germanic | kweduz | resin |
| 17 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷet- | resin, gum; to say, speak |