Webster's English Dictionary

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etymon

et.y.mon \'et-*-.ma:n\ \-m*\ n or et.y.ma also etymons [L, fr. Gk, literal 
   meaning of a word according to its origin, fr. etymos] pl  true; akin to Gk 
   eteos true 1a: an earlier form of a word in the same language or an 
   ancestral language  1b: a word in a foreign language that is the source of 
   a particular loanwor d 2: a word or morpheme from which words are formed by 
   composition or derivat ion