Autonomous means running itself, under no one else's control. An autonomous region, autonomous vehicles, act autonomously.
In politics an autonomous region governs its own affairs within a larger state. In machines the word covers a scale rather than a state — driving automation runs from level zero to five, and only the top level is autonomous in the full sense. The Greek means self-law.
1adjectiveautonomousRunning itself, under no one else's control.
“The company is testing autonomous delivery robots that find their own way around the city.”
autonomous is a quality of independence.
Also accepted in games: self-governing
The Greek parts are self and law. Autonomous is running under its own law and under nobody else's.
hooks ontolaw
Ancient Greek
αὐτονομῐ́ᾱ
English
autonomy
English, today
autonomous
From autonomy + -ous. autonomy Borrowed from Ancient Greek αὐτονομῐ́ᾱ. Ancient Greek αὐτονομῐ́ᾱ (“freedom to use its own laws, independence”), from αὐτόνομος + -ῐ́ᾱ. by surface analysis, auto- + -nomy.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA