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Of uncertain origin, though probably of Indo-European origin. Similar words in other languages include Proto-Balto-Slavic*géiˀta(“grain, corn”), Proto-Germanic*hwaitijaz(“wheat”), Basquezitu(“corn, harvest”), and Sumerian(zid, “flour”), which are often taken as donor languages to Greek.[1]
A more recent theory by Janda has explained it as the substantivization of an adjective *σῑτό-(*sītó-, “threshed”), derived from Proto-Indo-European*tih₂-tó-(“struck”), a participle from the newly suggested verbal root *tyeh₂-(“to strike, hit”), which is apparently also seen in Hittite(zāḫ-ᶦ, “to hit, beat”). Then σῆμα(sêma, “sign, mark”) (< *tiéh₂-mn(“what is carved”)), σῶμα(sôma, “corpse”) (< *tióh₂-mn(“the killed one”)), and σῑμός(sīmós, “snub-nosed”) (< *tih₂-mó-(“flattened”)) could be related.[2] Beekes is doubtful of Janda's derivation, due to the wide range of supposed meanings within only one language (Greek) and the lack of a direct "strike" meaning within Greek.
^ Michael Janda, Σῶμα – σῆμα and Socrates' snub nose: The new IE root ti̯ah2- “to strike”, paper presented at the Colloquium Indo-European and its neighbours in combination with the 2. Indogermanistischen Arbeitstagung Münster/Leiden, Leiden, 6 June 2005.