word-forming element meaning "self, one's own, by oneself, of oneself" (and especially, from 1895, "automobile"), from Greek autos, reflexive pronoun, "self, same," which is of unknown origin. It also was a common word-forming element in ancient Greek, as in modern English, but very few of the old words have survived the interval. In Greek, as a word-forming element, auto- had the sense of "self, one's own, of oneself ('independently'); of itself ('natural, native, not made'); just exactly; together with." Before a vowel, it became aut-; before an aspirate, auth-. In Greek it also was used as a prefix to proper names, as in automelinna "Melinna herself." The opposite prefix would be allo-.

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to think," with derivatives referring to qualities and states of mind or thought.

It forms all or part of: admonish; Ahura Mazda; ament; amentia; amnesia; amnesty; anamnesis; anamnestic; automatic; automaton; balletomane; comment; compos mentis; dement; demonstrate; Eumenides; idiomatic; maenad; -mancy; mandarin; mania; maniac; manic; mantic; mantis; mantra; memento; mens rea; mental; mention; mentor; mind; Minerva; minnesinger; mnemonic; Mnemosyne; money; monition; monitor; monster; monument; mosaic; Muse; museum; music; muster; premonition; reminiscence; reminiscent; summon.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit manas- "mind, spirit," matih "thought," munih "sage, seer;" Avestan manah- "mind, spirit;" Greek memona "I yearn," mania "madness," mantis "one who divines, prophet, seer;" Latin mens "mind, understanding, reason," memini "I remember," mentio "remembrance;" Lithuanian mintis "thought, idea," Old Church Slavonic mineti "to believe, think," Russian pamjat "memory;" Gothic gamunds, Old English gemynd "memory, remembrance; conscious mind, intellect."

"automated cafeteria," 1903, probably from automatic (adj.), though the system itself is said to have originated in Germany, and the word may be from German. Earlier it meant "an automaton" (1670s).

1834, "involuntarily, unconsciously," from automatical (see automatic (adj.)) + -ly (2).

1948, in the manufacturing sense, "the large-scale use of automatic equipment in production," coined by Ford Motor Co. Vice President Delmar S. Harder, from automatic (adj.) + -ion. Earlier (1838) was automatism, which meant "quality of being automatic" in the classical sense.

1837, "to make into an automaton, make into a self-acting machine;" see automaton + -ize. The meaning "to make automatic" is attested by 1952 (see automatic (adj.)). Related: Automatized; automatizing.

1962, proprietary name (reg. Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, New York) for a type of self-loading camera, from instant + automatic.

commercial word-forming element denoting devices that work automatically or businesses containing self-service equipment, abstracted from automat (1903), which probably is from automatic, in which case the element is etymologically from Greek matos "thinking, animated."

"partially automatic," 1853, from semi- + automatic (adj.). In reference to a firearm that loads all or partly by itself (but does not fire continuously) by 1889. As a noun in this sense (short for semi-automatic firearm, etc.) by 1964.