Number & MeasureGreek → English
Homogeneous
/ˌhoʊməˈdʒiːniəs/adjective
Made up of parts that are all alike, or uniform throughout.
The Greek roots
ὁμός
homós
same
γένος
génos
kind, race
Literally: “of the same kind”
The story of the word
It reached English in the 1620s through Medieval Latin, and mathematics later gave it a strict job: a homogeneous equation is one whose terms all have the same degree. Watch the spelling, because homogenous is a separate biological word about shared ancestry, and it is not the shorter form of this one. ὁμός also underwrites homonym and homily, a word spoken to a crowd gathered together.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Medieval Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
homonymhomilyheterogeneousgenus
In a sentence
Stir until the mixture is homogeneous, with no streaks of yolk left.