English
xerox
Xerox comes from the trademark Xerox, from xerography, from Ancient Greek ξηρός ‘dry’.
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEξηρός‘dry’
- English1500–presentxerography
- English1500–presentXerox‘a photocopier (trademark)’
- Englishearliest quotation 2009xerox
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEξηρός‘dry’
- English1500–presentxerography
- English1500–presentXerox‘a photocopier (trademark)’
- Englishearliest quotation 2009xerox
Earliest quotation: 2009, David Ebershoff, The 19th Wife: “There were twenty pictures in the envelope, xeroxes but…”
A compound of ξηρός ‘dry’ + γραφή ‘writing’
Proto-Indo-European *kseros ‘dry’
Ancient Greek ξηρός ‘dry’
Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- ‘to carve’
Proto-Hellenic *grə́pʰō ‘to scratch, cut or carve into’
Ancient Greek γρᾰ́φω ‘to scratch, cut into’
Ancient Greek γραφή ‘writing’
The story
Genericized trademark from Xerox (‘a photocopier’), from xerography, from Ancient Greek ξηρός (xērós, “dry”) and γραφή (graphḗ, “writing”).
Linked words
pairs
- xerox and elixir both from Ancient Greek ξηρός ‘dry’
Every English word from Ancient Greek ξηρός
Today it means
noun A xerograph (copy).
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Ancient Greek ξηρός / xerox