norm (n.)
"a standard, pattern, or model," 1821 (Coleridge), from French norme, from Latin norma "carpenter's square, rule, pattern," a word of unknown origin. Klein suggests a borrowing (via Etruscan) of Greek gnōmōn "carpenter's square." The Latin form of the word, norma, was used in English in the sense of "carpenter's square" from 1670s, also as the name of a small, faint southern constellation introduced 18c. by La Caille.
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"not conformed or conforming to rule, deviating from a type or standard, contrary to system or law, irregular, unnatural," 1835, a refashioning of anormal (q.v.) under influence of Latin abnormalis "deviating from a fixed rule, irregular," from ab "off, away from" (see ab-) + norma "rule" (see norm).
The older form was from French anormal (13c.), from Medieval Latin anormalus, an altered (by association with norma) borrowing of Greek anomalos "uneven, irregular," from an- "not" (see an- (1)) + homalos "even," from homos "same" (from PIE root *sem- (1) "one; as one, together with"). Compare anomaly. "Few words show such a series of pseudo-etymological perversions." Another adjective was abnormous (1742) "irregular, misshapen," from Latin abnormis. Related: Abnormally.
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norepinephrine
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Norma
normal
normalcy
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