Meaning

noun an abstract part of something

noun an artifact that is one of the individual parts of which a composite entity is made up; especially a part that can be separated from or attached to a system

noun any of the more than 100 known substances (of which 92 occur naturally) that cannot be separated into simpler substances and that singly or in combination constitute all matter

originFrom Middle English element, from Old French element, from Latin elementum (“a first principle, element, rudiment”) (see further etymology there). The verb is from Middle English elementen, from the noun.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0