Meaning

noun the subject matter of a conversation or discussion

noun a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in literary or artistic work

noun (music) melodic subject of a musical composition

originFrom Middle English teme, from Old French teme, tesme (French thème), from Latin thema, from Ancient Greek θέμα (théma), from τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”), reduplicative from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, do”) (whence also English do). Doublet of thema.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0