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Origin and history of pheme

pheme(n.)

"a word regarded as a grammatical unit in a language," 1906, coined by U.S. philosopher Charles S. Pierce (1839-1914), from Greek phēmē "speech, voice, utterance, a speaking" (from PIE root *bha- (2) "to speak, tell, say").

also from 1906

Entries linking to pheme

seme(n.)

in linguistics, "a sign or symbol; the smallest unit of meaning," 1866, from Greek sēma "sign" (see semantic). Compare -eme, pheme.

*bha-(2)

*bhā-; Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to speak, tell, say."

It might form all or part of: abandon; affable; anthem; antiphon; aphasia; aphonia; aphonic; apophasis; apophatic; ban (n.1) "proclamation or edict;" ban (v.); banal; bandit; banish; banlieue; banns (n.); bifarious; blame; blaspheme; blasphemy; boon (n.); cacophony; confess; contraband; defame; dysphemism; euphemism; euphony; fable; fabulous; fado; fairy; fame; famous; fandango; fatal; fate; fateful; fatuous; fay; gramophone; heterophemy; homophone; ineffable; infamous; infamy; infant; infantile; infantry; mauvais; megaphone; microphone; monophonic; nefandous; nefarious; phatic; -phone; phone (n.2) "elementary sound of a spoken language;" phoneme; phonetic; phonic; phonics; phono-; pheme; -phemia; Polyphemus; polyphony; preface; profess; profession; professional; professor; prophecy; prophet; prophetic; quadraphonic; symphony; telephone; xylophone.

It might also be the source of: Greek pheme "speech, voice, utterance, a speaking, talk," phōnē "voice, sound" of a human or animal, also "tone, voice, pronunciation, speech," phanai "to speak;" Sanskrit bhanati "speaks;" Latin fari "to say," fabula "narrative, account, tale, story," fama "talk, rumor, report; reputation, public opinion; renown, reputation;" Armenian ban, bay "word, term;" Old Church Slavonic bajati "to talk, tell;" Old English boian "to boast," ben "prayer, request;" Old Irish bann "law."

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    Trends of pheme

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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