Etymology Explorer › Middle French

Where does “neume” come from?

neume (Middle French) comes from Medieval Latin neuma, from Ancient Greek νεῦμα, from Ancient Greek -μᾰ, from Proto-Indo-European -mn̥ — Creates action nouns or result nouns from verbs.

Ancestry of “neume”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Medieval Latinneuma—
2Ancient Greekνεῦμαnod, sign; expression of will, command; approval,...
3Ancient Greek-μᾰ"suffix forming a noun denoting the result of an...
4Proto-Indo-European-mn̥Creates action nouns or result nouns from verbs
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -mn̥ →