Logic — From Ancient Greek to English | etymologist.ai
logic
/ˈlɒdʒɪk/·noun·c. 1325 CE — attested in Middle English as 'logik' in scholastic and university texts·Established
Origin
From PIE *leǵ- ('to collect'), through Greek *lógos* ('word, reason, proportion'), Latin *logica*, and Old French *logique* into 14th-century English — every *-logy* word ('biology', 'etymology') is a direct sibling, and 'intelligent' shares the same root.
Definition
The branch of philosophy concerned with the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning, from Greek logikē (tekhnē), 'art of reason', from logos, 'word, reason, discourse'.
The Full Story
Ancient Greek4th century BCEwell-attested
The word 'logic' derives ultimately from the Ancient Greek noun λόγος (lógos), one of the most semantically rich words in the Greek language, carryingmeanings ranging from 'word' and 'speech' to 'reason', 'account', 'ratio', and 'discourse'. The PIE root is *leǵ-, meaning 'to collect, gather, choose', which also gives Latin legere ('to read, gather'), and through it English words such as 'legend', 'lecture', 'elect', 'select', 'intelligent', 'neglect', and 'diligent'. From lógos was derived the adjective λογικός (logikós), meaning 'of or pertaining
Did you know?
Theword 'logic' and the word 'intelligent' share a root. Latin *intellegere* — from which 'intelligent' descends — is built from *inter-* ('between') and *legere* ('to choose, gather'), the sameLatinverb that descends from PIE *leǵ- that gave us Greek *lógos* and ultimately *logic*. To be intelligent, in the original sense, was literally to choose between things — a capacity
the term retroactively. Cicero (106–43 BCE) introduced the Latin form logica into Roman philosophical vocabulary. The word entered Old French as logique and Middle English as logik/logic by approximately 1300–1350 CE. Medieval scholastics treated logic as one of the three arts of the trivium (alongside grammar and rhetoric). The Greek root *leǵ- yields a wide family: Greek λέξις (léxis, 'word, phrase'), λέγειν (légein, 'to speak'), Latin legō ('I read/gather'), German lesen ('to read'), and English 'lex', 'lexicon', 'lexical'. Key roots: *leǵ- (Proto-Indo-European: "to collect, gather, choose; to pick words"), λόγος (lógos) (Ancient Greek: "word, speech, reason, account, ratio"), logica (Latin: "the art of reasoning; logic as a discipline").