cube

The word 'cube' entered English in the 16th century from the Middle French 'cube', which itself came from the Latin 'cubus'. Latin borrowed the term from the Greek 'kubos', meaning a six-sided die, a vertebra, or any regular solid with equal sides. The Greek term is thought to have even earlier, pre-Greek origins, possibly from a Mediterranean substrate language. The mathematical sense of 'raising to the third power' developed in the 17th century, directly extending from the geometric concept of a three-dimensional solid.

The word 'cube' is a simplex loanword from French, ultimately derived from Latin 'cubus' and Greek 'kubos'. Its spelling and form are not productively divisible into smaller, meaningful English morphemes.