Topic summary
Etymon
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Etymology.
Etymology
The etymon is the predicate (i.e., stem or root) from which a later word or morpheme derives. For example, the Latin word candidus, which means 'white', is the etymon of English candid. Relationships are often less transparent, however. English place names such as Winchester, Gloucester, Tadcaster share different forms of a suffix that originated as the Latin castrum'fort'.