(linguistics) The original or earlier form of an inherited or borrowedword,affix, ormorpheme either from an earlier period in a language's development, from an ancestral language, or from a foreign language.
Here such cases as ghost words & misglosses, secondary semantics, different etymologies for oneetymon or one etymology for differentetyma, and finally semantic overpermissiveness are discussed.
2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, inEnglish World-Wide[1], page 5:
The resulting citation collection was databased and coded for meaning,etymon, and date range (earliest and latest occurrence found).
2016, Bryan A. Garner,Garner's Modern English Usage, 4th edition:
Parricide, the more usual word, means (1) "the murder of one's own father"; or (2) "someone who murders his or her own father" […] It is also used in extended senses, such as "the murder of the ruler of a country" and "the murder of a close relative." These are not examples of slipshod extension, however, for even the Latinetymon (parricida) was used in these senses.
Meaning as derived and conveyed thereby: Theliteral meaning of aterm according to its origin, which may differ from itsusual meaning when the latter relies onidiomatic conventions that are not conveyed by the term alone (that is, they must be known in other ways, such as experience, training, education, or dictionary lookup).
