homeostasis

First recorded in 1925–30; homeo- + stasis

Homeostasis is a technical term used in biology, physiology, and psychology, meaning “the tendency of an organism to maintain internal stability, or the tendency of a group of organisms, such as social insects like bees or ants, to act cooperatively.” Homeostasis is composed of the Greek combining form homoio- “like, similar, resembling” (from the adjective hómoios ) and stásis, a verbal noun meaning “standing, standing still, position, political opinion or party,” (from the verb histánai “to stand, to make stand, set up.”)
Greek has many compounds formed with homoio-, especially technical terms in rhetoric ( homoitéleutos “having similar endings or codas in phrases or verses"), biology ( homoiótropos “of animals, displaying similar behavior"), and physics ( homoiotachḗs “moving with equal velocity”).
Hómoios is a derivative of the adjective homós “the same, one and the same,” from Proto-Indo-European somós, source of Germanic samaz, which becomes Old Norse samr, adopted into English as same. Sanskrit has the adjective samá- “the same, similar”; Slavic (Polish) has sam “the same.”
Stásis forms many compound nouns in Greek, such as stasíarchos “(political or factional) party leader,” xenóstasis “inn for strangers,” and anástasis “standing up, removal, expulsion,” also meaning “resurrection” once each in Aeschylus’s Eumenides and in the New Testament's Epistle to the Hebrews. Anástasis forms the Greek proper names Anastásios (masculine) and Anastasía (in Late Latin Anastasius and Anastasia ).