From Greek 'autonomia,' 'autos' (self) + 'nomos' (law), PIE *nem- — kin to 'economy,' 'astronomy,' 'taxonomy,' and 'nemesis.'
Definition
The right or condition of self-government; freedom from external control or influence; independence.
The Full Story
Greek17th centurywell-attested
From Greek autonomia (independence, the condition of living under one's own laws), from autonomos (having one's own laws, self-governing), from autos (self) + nomos (law, custom, usage), from PIE *h₂ew- (again, away) + *nem- (to assign, to allot, to take). The PIE root *nem- originally meant to distribute or allot — a pastoral concept of dividing resources — and in Greek it evolved to mean law and custom (nomos), the rules by which things are distributed and governed. Combined with autos (self), autonomos described a Greek
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Greek 'nomos' (law) and 'nemesis' (retribution) come from the same PIE root *nem- (to assign, allot). Nemesis wasthe goddess who assigned each person their due — she allotted punishment to those who had received more than their share. A nemesis is, etymologically, someone whogivesyou
(originally the distribution of what is due, divine retribution), nomad (one who roams to find pasture — distributed grazing), and economy (oikos + nomos, household management). The auto- prefix from PIE *h₂ew- runs through scores of modern compounds — automatic, automobile, autograph — always encoding the concept of self-directed action. Key roots: *nem- (Proto-Indo-European: "to assign, allot, take"), autos (Greek: "self").