The term paradox was introduced by Thomas More in 1533, borrowed from the Middle French word paradoxe, which itself was borrowed from Latin paradoxum in the fourteenth century. The Latin word retained the same meaning. Paradoxum originated from the Ancient Greek paradoxon, which meant “unexpected” or “incredible”. More specifically, it meant “contrary to opinion”, as it consisted of the prefix para-, meaning “contrary” or “beyond”, and the root doxa, meaning “expectation” or “opinion”. Initially, para denoted “alongside”, similar to its use in parallel, reflecting the Greek belief that two intersecting viewpoints were contradictory. The word parallel itself traces back to Proto-Indo-European per, meaning “forward”. On the other hand, doxa traces its roots to the Proto-Indo-European reconstruction dek, meaning “take”.
