the linguistic form from which another form is historically derived, as the Latin cor “heart,” which is the etymon of English cordial, or the Indo-European *ḱ (e) rd-, which is the etymon of Latin cor, Greek kardía, Russian serdtse, and English heart.
Origin
1560-70; < Latin: the origin of a word < Greekétymon the essential meaning of a word seen in its origin or traced to its grammatical parts (neuter of étymos true, actual, real)
British Dictionary definitions for etymon
etymon
/ˈɛtɪˌmɒn/
noun (pl) -mons, -ma (-mə)
1.
a form of a word or morpheme, usually the earliest recorded form or a reconstructed form, from which another word or morpheme is derived: the etymon of English "ewe" is Indo-European "*owi"
Word Origin
C16: via Latin, from Greek etumon basic meaning, from etumos true, actual
Word Origin and History for etymon
n.
"primitive word," 1570s, from Greek etymon, neuter of etymos "true, real, actual," related to eteos "true," which is perhaps cognate with Sanskrit satyah, Gothic sunjis, Old English soð "true."