morpheme

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as borrowed from French morphème,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} coined from Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape”) on the model of phonème, the source of phoneme,^[3][5][8][9] or with the suffix -eme.^[7][10] The revised OED instead forms it in English from the Greek noun and -eme, after German Morphem, used by Jan Baudouin de Courtenay in 1895, and after his Russian term of 1881; it dates the French word only from 1905.^[11] Etymonline likewise names German and Baudouin de Courtenay,^[12] and notes that the Greek noun is of uncertain origin.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A grammatical element, such as a prefix, suffix, preposition or stress pattern, considered for its function in the linguistic system: 1896, in R. J. Lloyd's article in Die neueren Sprachen.^[11][3][13] Barnhart's own first date, 1925, is from Paul Radin's translation of Joseph Vendryes's Le Langage.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, any meaningful element such as an affix or an inflection, is now obsolete or little used by linguists.^[3][13][6] The modern sense, the smallest unit of a language that has meaning and cannot be divided further, whether a free form like man or a bound one like -ed, took over in the 20th century;^[2][13][6] the OED credits the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield with making the term widely current in English.^[11]

Timeline

• 1896 – a grammatical element considered in its functional relations.^[11][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (linguistics) The smallest meaningful unit of a language, which cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts, such as book or the -s of books.^[2][9][13]
2. (linguistics) Formerly, any grammatical element, such as an affix, preposition or stress pattern, considered for its function in the language.^[13][11][6]

Word family

• morphemic
• morphemically
• morphemics

Related words

• morph
• phoneme
• morphology
• lexeme

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster