period

The word 'period' originates from the Greek 'periodos,' meaning "a going around, cycle, circuit." This was a compound of 'peri-' (around) and 'hodos' (way, path). It entered Latin as 'periodus,' referring to a recurrent cycle, particularly in rhetoric for a complete, rounded sentence. In Medieval Latin, it took on the astronomical meaning of a cycle of time. This sense of a defined cycle was adopted into Middle English, later expanding to signify any distinct portion of time and, by the 16th century, the punctuation mark that signifies the end of a rhetorical or grammatical circuit.

Structure: peri (around) + od (way, path) 'peri' is a Greek prefix meaning "around, about, near." 'od' is derived from the Greek noun 'hodos,' meaning "way, path, journey."