Origins
The word 'method' conceals one of Greek's most evocative spatial metaphors: knowledge as a journey along a road. It enters English in the early fifteenth century from Latin 'methodus,' borrowed from Greek 'méthodos' (μέθοδος), which meant 'pursuit of knowledge,' 'mode of investigation,' or 'systematic treatment.' The Greek word is composed of 'metá' (μετά, after, along, in pursuit of) and 'hodós' (ὁδός, way, road, path, journey). A 'méthodos' is literally a 'following-after along a road' — the image of someone tracking a path toward a destination, which in this case is understanding.
The Greek word 'hodós' is remarkably productive in English, though it is almost always disguised. 'Exodus' (ἔξοδος) is 'ex-' (out) + 'hodós' — a road out, a departure, the name given to the Israelites' departure from Egypt and to the second book of the Hebrew Bible. 'Period' (περίοδος) is 'perí' (around) + 'hodós' — a going around, a circuit, a cycle of time. 'Episode' (ἐπεισόδιον, from ἐπείσοδος) is 'epi-' (upon) + 'eis-' (into) + 'hodós' — a coming in upon, originally the part of a Greek tragedy between two choral odes, when actors entered. 'Synod' (σύνοδος) is 'syn-' (together) + 'hodós' — a coming together, a meeting, now primarily an ecclesiastical assembly.
Perhaps most surprisingly, the electrical terms 'cathode' and 'anode' contain the same root. Michael Faraday, who coined these terms in 1834 with the help of the classicist William Whewell, built them from 'katá' (down) + 'hodós' (way) and 'aná' (up) + 'hodós' (way). The cathode is the 'downward road' and the anode the 'upward road' — the paths along which electric current was imagined to flow. The same spatial thinking that made 'method' a road toward knowledge made electrodes roads for electricity.
Greek Origins
In Greek philosophical usage, 'méthodos' had a more specific sense than the English word has today. Plato and Aristotle used it to mean a systematic mode of inquiry — not just any procedure but a disciplined path of reasoning. Aristotle's emphasis on methodical investigation as the foundation of knowledge gave the word its enduring association with rigor and systematicity.
The phrase 'method acting,' coined in the mid-twentieth century to describe the technique associated with Constantin Stanislavski and later Lee Strasberg, uses 'method' in its strongest sense: a systematic, disciplined approach to artistic creation, requiring the actor to follow a specific psychological path into the character. The capitalized 'Method' became shorthand for this entire school of performance.
The related word 'Methodist' has a different origin story. The term was applied mockingly in the 1730s to John Wesley and his followers at Oxford, who pursued their religious devotions with such systematic regularity that critics called them 'Methodists' — people obsessed with method. Wesley accepted the label, and what began as a taunt became the name of one of the world's largest Protestant denominations.
Modern Usage
The adjective 'methodical' (systematic, orderly) entered English in the sixteenth century, and 'methodology' (the study of methods, or a system of methods used in a particular discipline) followed in the nineteenth century. In contemporary academic usage, 'methodology' has become ubiquitous — and frequently criticized by prescriptivists who argue that 'methodology' should mean 'the study of methods,' not simply 'the methods used.' The drift from 'study of methods' to 'methods employed' mirrors the broader tendency of '-ology' words to shift from 'the study of X' to 'the body of knowledge about X' to simply 'X itself.'