- tele-
- before vowels tel-, word-forming element meaning "far, far off, operating over distance" (also, since c. 1940, "television"), from Greek tele-, combining form of tele "far off, afar, at or to a distance," related to teleos (genitive telos) "end, goal, completion, result," from PIE root *kwel- (2) "far" in space and time (source also of Sanskrit caramah "the last," Breton pell "far off," Welsh pellaf "uttermost"). Some sources connect this root with *kwel- (1), forming words to do with turning (see cycle (n.)), via the notion of "completion of a cycle."
