a form of a word or morpheme, usually the earliest recorded form or a reconstructed form, from which another word or morpheme is derived: the etymon of English "ewe" is Indo-European "*owi"
Word origin
C16: via Latin, from Greek etumon basic meaning, from etumos true, actual
etymon in American English
(ˈɛtəˌmɑn)
nounWord forms: pluralˈetyˌmons or ˈetyma (ˈɛtəmə)
1.
the earlier form of a word, as at an earlier period in the development of a language
in this dictionary etymons are shown in italic type within the etymologies
Old English eage is the etymon of Modern English eye
2.
a word or morpheme from which derivatives or compounds have developed
Word origin
L < Gr etymon, literal sense of a word, etymology, neut. of etymos, true < IE *seto- < base *es-, to be > is1, L sum, est