English
method
Method comes from Middle French methode ‘method’, from Ancient Greek μέθοδος ‘following after, pursuit’, and ultimately from ὁδός ‘road’.
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEὁδόςhodós‘road’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEμέθοδοςméthodos‘following after’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmethodus
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600methode‘method’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602method
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEὁδόςhodós‘road’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEμέθοδοςméthodos‘following after’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmethodus
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600methode‘method’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602method
Earliest quotation: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: “Though this be madneſſe, / Yet there is Method…”
Equivalent to met- + -hod
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *sed- ‘to sit’
president, set, size, sell, sit, sitting, seat, session, chair, resident, settle, assess, nest, possess, siege, niche, saddle, reside, subsidy, sedan, residue, residual, nye, insidious, sediment, sedentary, dissident, prasad, soot, sedative, obsess, beset, sedate, setter, chaise, presidio, sate, sessile, presidium, seance, 93 more
through Ancient Greek ὁδός ‘road’
Today it means
noun A process by which a task is completed; a way of doing something (followed by the adposition of, to or for before the purpose of the process).
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Ancient Greek ὁδός / method