喺亞裏士多德嘅著作入面，「原因」（cause）呢個詞嘅原文係古希臘文αἴτιον（希臘文：aition），另一個用到嘅近似詞係αἰτία（aitia），呢個字係有「原因」 （cause）同「理由」（reason）呢兩個意思。呢兩個詞互相出現，當搵呢樣嘢嘅原因時，就用αἴτιον，當要解釋呢樣嘢時，就用αἰτία，例如 ：
In Aristotle's writings, the word cause is originally written in the ancient Greece αἴτιον (Greece: aition), and another similar word used is αἰτία ( aitia ) , which has the meaning of "cause" and "reason". These two words appear in each other, when looking for the cause of such a thing, use αἴτιον, when to explain such a thing, use αἰτία, for example: