synthetic

Where it comes from

Synthetic ordinarily means artificially made by combining materials or elements rather than occurring naturally. Synthetic came from Greek synthetikos, skilled in putting together or concerned with composition, from syntithenai, to put together. That verb combines syn-, together, with tithenai, to put or place. English first used synthetic in logic for combining propositions or ideas, then in grammar and other analytical fields.

How the meaning developed

Nineteenth-century chemistry applied it to substances assembled from components; only afterward did synthetic acquire its familiar suggestion of artificial imitation.