Where does “metro” come from?
metro (Italian) comes from French métro, from French métropolitain, from Latin mētropolītānus, from Ancient Greek μητροπολίτης, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις, from Ancient Greek πόλις, from Proto-Hellenic ptólis, from Proto-Indo-European tpólHis — fortification, city.
metro (Italian): metre, meter; ruler, ruler, measure; yardstick,...
Definitions
- metre, meter; ruler, ruler, measure; yardstick,...
Ancestry of “metro”, step by step
metro traces back through 3 separate lines of ancestry.
via French métro
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | métro | metro; subway US, underground UK, Tube UK |
| 2 | French | métropolitain | metropolitan; subway, underground; Person from... |
| 3 | Latin | mētropolītānus | metropolitan |
| 4 | Ancient Greek | μητροπολίτης | metropolitan |
| 5 | Ancient Greek | μητρόπολις | mother-state; one's mother-city, mother country,... |
| 6 | Ancient Greek | πόλις | city; a whole country, as dependent on and called... |
| 7 | Proto-Hellenic | ptólis | city |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | tpólHis | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | tpelH- | fortification, city |
via Latin metrum
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Latin | metrum | a measure |
| 2 | Ancient Greek | μέτρον | something used to measure: measure, rule, weight;... |
| 3 | Ancient Greek | -τρον | Forms instrument nouns |
| 4 | Proto-Hellenic | -tron | Forms instrument nouns from verb stems |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | -trom | Forms nouns denoting a tool or instrument |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -tḗr | Derives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone... |
via Italian metropolitana
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Italian | metropolitana | metro |
| 2 | Italian | metropolitano | cop; point duty officer; traffic control officer |