English 'organic' comes from Greek 'organikós' (instrumental), from 'órganon' (instrument, tool), from PIE *werǵ- (to work) — the same root behind English 'work' and 'energy,' with the modern agricultural sense of 'chemical-free' dating only to Lord Northbourne's coinage in 1940.
Relating to or derived from living matter; in agriculture, produced without synthetic chemicals or pesticides.
From Latin 'organicus' (of or pertaining to an organ), from Greek 'organikós' (ὀργανικός, of or for an instrument, serving as an organ), from 'órganon' (ὄργανον, instrument, tool, organ of the body), from PIE *werǵ- (to work, to do). The agricultural sense of 'produced without synthetic chemicals' arose in the 1940s, influenced by Lord Northbourne's 1940 book 'Look to the Land,' which contrasted 'organic farming' with 'chemical farming.' Key roots: *werǵ- (Proto-Indo-European: "to work, to do").
'Organic,' 'work,' 'energy,' and 'surgery' all trace to the same PIE root *werǵ- (to do, to work). Greek 'érgon' (work) produced 'energy' (en- + ergon, 'at work') and 'surgery' (from Greek 'kheirourgía,' hand-work). An 'organ' was originally a 'working instrument.' The modern grocery-store label 'organic' thus traces back five thousand years to a word meaning simply 'to work.'