Definition of the word etymology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

«Etymologies» redirects here. For the work by Isidore of Seville, see Etymologiae.

Etymology ( ET-im-OL-ə-jee^[1]) is the study of the origin and evolution of a word’s semantic meaning across time, including its constituent morphemes and phonemes.^[2][3] It is a subfield of historical linguistics, and draws upon comparative semantics, morphology, semiotics, and phonetics.

For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts, and texts about the language, to gather knowledge about how words were used during earlier periods, how they developed in meaning and form, or when and how they entered the language. Etymologists also apply the methods of comparative linguistics to reconstruct information about forms that are too old for any direct information to be available. By analyzing related languages with a technique known as the comparative method, linguists can make inferences about their shared parent language and its vocabulary. In this way, word roots in many European languages, for example, can be traced all the way back to the origin of the Indo-European language family.

Even though etymological research originated from the philological tradition, much current etymological research is done on language families where little or no early documentation is available, such as Uralic and Austronesian.

Etymology[edit]

The word etymology derives from the Greek word ἐτυμολογία (etumología), itself from ἔτυμον (étumon), meaning «true sense or sense of a truth», and the suffix -logia, denoting «the study of».^[4][5]

The term etymon refers to a word or morpheme (e.g., stem^[6] or root^[7]) from which a later word or morpheme derives. For example, the Latin word candidus, which means «white», is the etymon of English candid. Relationships are often less transparent, however. English place names such as Winchester, Gloucester, Tadcaster share in different modern forms a suffixed etymon that was once meaningful, Latin castrum ‘fort’.

Methods[edit]

Etymologists apply a number of methods to study the origins of words, some of which are:

• Philological research. Changes in the form and meaning of the word can be traced with the aid of older texts, if such are available.
• Making use of dialectological data. The form or meaning of the word might show variations between dialects, which may yield clues about its earlier history.
• The comparative method. By a systematic comparison of related languages, etymologists may often be able to detect which words derive from their common ancestor language and which were instead later borrowed from another language.
• The study of semantic change. Etymologists must often make hypotheses about changes in the meaning of particular words. Such hypotheses are tested against the general knowledge of semantic shifts. For example, the assumption of a particular change of meaning may be substantiated by showing that the same type of change has occurred in other languages as well.

Types of word origins[edit]

Etymological theory recognizes that words originate through a limited number of basic mechanisms, the most important of which are language change, borrowing (i.e., the adoption of «loanwords» from other languages); word formation such as derivation and compounding; and onomatopoeia and sound symbolism (i.e., the creation of imitative words such as «click» or «grunt»).

While the origin of newly emerged words is often more or less transparent, it tends to become obscured through time due to sound change or semantic change. Due to sound change, it is not readily obvious that the English word set is related to the word sit (the former is originally a causative formation of the latter). It is even less obvious that bless is related to blood (the former was originally a derivative with the meaning «to mark with blood»).

Semantic change may also occur. For example, the English word bead originally meant «prayer». It acquired its modern meaning through the practice of counting the recitation of prayers by using beads.

History[edit]

The search for meaningful origins for familiar or strange words is far older than the modern understanding of linguistic evolution and the relationships of languages, which began no earlier than the 18th century. From Antiquity through the 17th century, from Pāṇini to Pindar to Sir Thomas Browne, etymology had been a form of witty wordplay, in which the supposed origins of words were creatively imagined to satisfy contemporary requirements; for example, the Greek poet Pindar (born in approximately 522 BCE) employed inventive etymologies to flatter his patrons. Plutarch employed etymologies insecurely based on fancied resemblances in sounds. Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae was an encyclopedic tracing of «first things» that remained uncritically in use in Europe until the sixteenth century. Etymologicum genuinum is a grammatical encyclopedia edited at Constantinople in the ninth century, one of several similar Byzantine works. The thirteenth-century Legenda Aurea, as written by Jacobus de Varagine, begins each vita of a saint with a fanciful excursus in the form of an etymology.^[8]

Ancient Sanskrit[edit]

The Sanskrit linguists and grammarians of ancient India were the first to make a comprehensive analysis of linguistics and etymology. The study of Sanskrit etymology has provided Western scholars with the basis of historical linguistics and modern etymology. Four of the most famous Sanskrit linguists are:

• Yaska (c. 6th–5th centuries BCE)
• Pāṇini (c. 520–460 BCE)
• Kātyāyana (6th-4th centuries BCE)
• Patañjali (2nd century BCE)

These linguists were not the earliest Sanskrit grammarians, however. They followed a line of ancient grammarians of Sanskrit who lived several centuries earlier like Sakatayana of whom very little is known. The earliest of attested etymologies can be found in Vedic literature in the philosophical explanations of the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads.

The analyses of Sanskrit grammar done by the previously mentioned linguists involved extensive studies on the etymology (called Nirukta or Vyutpatti in Sanskrit) of Sanskrit words, because the ancient Indians considered sound and speech itself to be sacred and, for them, the words of the sacred Vedas contained deep encoding of the mysteries of the soul and God.

Ancient Greco-Roman[edit]

One of the earliest philosophical texts of the Classical Greek period to address etymology was the Socratic dialogue Cratylus (c. 360 BCE) by Plato. During much of the dialogue, Socrates makes guesses as to the origins of many words, including the names of the gods. In his Odes Pindar spins complimentary etymologies to flatter his patrons. Plutarch (Life of Numa Pompilius) spins an etymology for pontifex, while explicitly dismissing the obvious, and actual «bridge-builder»:

The priests, called Pontifices…. have the name of Pontifices from potens, powerful because they attend the service of the gods, who have power and command overall. Others make the word refer to exceptions of impossible cases; the priests were to perform all the duties possible; if anything lays beyond their power, the exception was not to be cavilled. The most common opinion is the most absurd, which derives this word from pons, and assigns the priests the title of bridge-makers. The sacrifices performed on the bridge were amongst the most sacred and ancient, and the keeping and repairing of the bridge attached, like any other public sacred office, to the priesthood.

Medieval[edit]

Isidore of Seville compiled a volume of etymologies to illuminate the triumph of religion. Each saint’s legend in Jacobus de Varagine’s Legenda Aurea begins with an etymological discourse on the saint’s name:

Lucy is said of light, and light is beauty in beholding, after that S. Ambrose saith: The nature of light is such, she is gracious in beholding, she spreadeth over all without lying down, she passeth in going right without crooking by right long line; and it is without dilation of tarrying, and therefore it is showed the blessed Lucy hath beauty of virginity without any corruption; essence of charity without disordinate love; rightful going and devotion to God, without squaring out of the way; right long line by continual work without negligence of slothful tarrying. In Lucy is said, the way of light.^[9]

Modern era[edit]

Etymology in the modern sense emerged in the late 18th-century European academia, within the context of the wider «Age of Enlightenment,» although preceded by 17th century pioneers such as Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, Gerardus Vossius, Stephen Skinner, Elisha Coles, and William Wotton. The first known systematic attempt to prove the relationship between two languages on the basis of similarity of grammar and lexicon was made in 1770 by the Hungarian, János Sajnovics, when he attempted to demonstrate the relationship between Sami and Hungarian (work that was later extended to the whole Finno-Ugric language family in 1799 by his fellow countryman, Samuel Gyarmathi).^[10]

The origin of modern historical linguistics is often traced to Sir William Jones, a Welsh philologist living in India, who in 1782 observed the genetic relationship between Sanskrit, Greek and Latin. Jones published his The Sanscrit Language in 1786, laying the foundation for the field of Indo-European linguistics.^[11]

The study of etymology in Germanic philology was introduced by Rasmus Christian Rask in the early 19th century and elevated to a high standard with the German Dictionary of the Brothers Grimm. The successes of the comparative approach culminated in the Neogrammarian school of the late 19th century. Still in the 19th century, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche used etymological strategies (principally and most famously in On the Genealogy of Morals, but also elsewhere) to argue that moral values have definite historical (specifically, cultural) origins where modulations in meaning regarding certain concepts (such as «good» and «evil») show how these ideas had changed over time—according to which value-system appropriated them. This strategy gained popularity in the 20th century, and philosophers, such as Jacques Derrida, have used etymologies to indicate former meanings of words to de-center the «violent hierarchies» of Western philosophy.

Notable etymologists[edit]

• Ernest Klein (1899-1983), Hungarian-born Romanian-Canadian linguist, etymologist
• Marko Snoj (born 1959), Indo-Europeanist, Slavist, Albanologist, lexicographer, and etymologist
• Anatoly Liberman (born 1937), linguist, medievalist, etymologist, poet, translator of poetry and literary critic
• Michael Quinion (born c. 1943)

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• Alfred Bammesberger. English Etymology. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1984.
• Philip Durkin. «Etymology», in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edn. Ed. Keith Brown. Vol. 4. Oxford: Elsevier, 2006, pp. 260–7.
• Philip Durkin. The Oxford Guide to Etymology. Oxford/NY: Oxford University Press, 2009.
• William B. Lockwood. An Informal Introduction to English Etymology. Montreux, London: Minerva Press, 1995.
• Yakov Malkiel. Etymology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
• Alan S. C. Ross. Etymology, with a special reference to English. Fair Lawn, N.J.: Essential Books; London: Deutsch, 1958.
• Michael Samuels. Linguistic Evolution: With Special Reference to English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.
• Bo Svensén. «Etymology», chap. 19 of A Handbook of Lexicography: The Theory and Practice of Dictionary-Making. Cambridge/NY: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Walther von Wartburg. Problems and Methods in Linguistics, rev. edn. with the collaboration of Stephen Ullmann. Trans. Joyce M. H. Reid. Oxford: Blackwell, 1969.

External links[edit]

• Media related to Etymology at Wikimedia Commons
• Etymology at Curlie.
• List of etymologies of words in 90+ languages.
• Online Etymology Dictionary.

Last Updated:
13 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

For etymology on Wiktionary, see Wiktionary:Etymology.

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English ethymologie, from Old French ethimologie, from Latin etymologia, from Ancient Greek ἐτυμολογία (etumología), from ἔτυμον (étumon, “true sense”) and -λογία (-logía, “study of”), from λόγος (lógos, “word; explanation”).

Pronunciation[edit]

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ĕt’ĭ-mŏlʹə-jē; IPA^(key): /ˌɛt.ɪˈmɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/
• (General American) enPR: ĕt’ə-mŏlʹə-jē; IPA^(key): /ˌɛt.əˈmɑl.ə.d͡ʒi/
• Hyphenation: e‧ty‧mo‧lo‧gy
• Rhymes: -ɒlədʒi

Noun[edit]

etymology (countable and uncountable, plural etymologies)

1. (uncountable, linguistics) The study of the historical development of languages, particularly as manifested in individual words.
2. (countable) The origin and historical development of a word; the derivation.

   • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎^[1], page 13:

     The etymology of the term Japlish is disputed and contentiously so.

   Although written the same, the words lead (the metal) and lead (the verb) have totally different etymologies.

3. (countable) An account of the origin and historical development of a word as presented in a dictionary or the like.
4. (countable) The direct origin of a name, as in who someone was named after.

   • 1996, The Rock:

     I’m sure you know the etymology of your name, Goodspeed.

Usage notes[edit]

• Not to be confused with entomology (“the study of insects”) or etiology (“the study of causes or origins”).
• Not to be confused with the origin of the object or person the word refers to.

Hyponyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

[edit]

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

• “etymology”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• “etymology”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• «etymology» in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.

There seems little room for doubt: the acronym etymology is not valid. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Since etymology is destiny, and right there in its original form 1000 years ago is twain, prescriptivists argue that between is illogical when more than two things are being discussed. ❋ Unknown (2009)

A folk etymology is one that is widely believed but which is unfounded linguistically, though often it ‘seems’ right. ❋ Unknown (2009)

First, despite what Wittgenstein said, etymology is not destiny*. ❋ Unknown (2009)

The word’s etymology is traced to the late 19th Century, «perhaps from French esquiver, ` dodge, slink away. ‘» ❋ Maxine (2009)

Its etymology is interesting in this context, as the word – inevitably (?) – points toward the very value of words, aligns a trajectory to Logos. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Knowledge of etymology is completely unnecessary for using a language. ❋ Unknown (2010)

Ultimately, because the basic elements of Leibniz’s thought (symbolic logic and metaphysics) betray the influence of his early thinking about artificial languages and his lifelong interest in etymology, one should emphasize that Leibniz’s formulation of ontological substance (monads) and his understanding of logical procedures reflect, essentially, a conception of linguistic being. ❋ Unknown (2008)

Its etymology is connected to the verb stem * — dàŋg, «to shine brightly.» ❋ Unknown (2008)

Its etymology is suggestive of interactions among one or both groups with an Eastern Sahelian speech community who used either * wèr or * wèd to name a type of «mud.» ❋ Unknown (2008)

Aspiration and inspiration share a common etymology from the Latin and old French referencing a form of divine awareness, sometimes called «a quickening» or «the breath of life.» ❋ Unknown (2009)

Etymology in action:
«The [etymologist] spent hours describing the origin of the word «nice» to the students. Unfortunately no one understood what he was talking about and were all in a deep slumber after 10 minutes.»
«[The dean] spent weeks trying to track down the entymologist to give a lecture on the derivation of the word ‘aunt.’ When the entymologist finally arrived discussing the workings of one of the most interesting insects on Earth, [the dean] was promptly fired for being a fraud.» ❋ Psiscott (2006)

The [etymologist] pointed out that his profession could not be [entomology] because «entomology» comes from the Ancient Greek word «entomos», meaning «cut», whereas «etymology» came from the Ancient Greek word «etú[mos]», meaning «true» ❋ Etymologynerd (2019)

[Bill Kristol] is being an etymological terrorist when he calls people who don’t want to always be involved in a war «isolationists» when in fact [isolationism] is what [North Korea] has and non-interventionism is what Switzerland has. ❋ Gunguy (2016)

I [butt-fucked] my girlfriend last night and she got the cutest little Dirty Sanchez when she sucked me clean. Thus [the Dirty Sanchez] (etymological) is an artifact of another act—it just happens; [no fingers] needed. ❋ Sterling Pfeffernüsse (2011)

Well, [Bernard], that is some [Monty Pythonesque application of the principles of logic and etymology] [right there]! ❋ PetersonE1 (2017)

etymology

study of the history of words

Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree Copyright © 2007, 2013 by Mary Embree

et·y·mol·o·gy

 (ĕt′ə-mŏl′ə-jē)

n. pl. et·y·mol·o·gies

1. The origin and historical development of a linguistic form as shown by determining its basic elements, earliest known use, and changes in form and meaning, tracing its transmission from one language to another, identifying its cognates in other languages, and reconstructing its ancestral form where possible.

2. The branch of linguistics that deals with etymologies.

---

[Middle English etimologie, from Old French ethimologie, from Medieval Latin ethimologia, from Latin etymologia, from Greek etumologiā : etumon, true sense of a word; see etymon + -logiā, -logy.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

etymology

(ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒɪ)

n, pl -gies

1. (Linguistics) the study of the sources and development of words and morphemes

2. (Linguistics) an account of the source and development of a word or morpheme

[C14: via Latin from Greek etumologia; see etymon, -logy]

etymological adj

ˌetymoˈlogically adv

ˌetyˈmologist n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

et•y•mol•o•gy

(ˌɛt əˈmɒl ə dʒi)

n., pl. -gies.

1. the history of a particular word or element of a word.

2. an account of the origin and development of a word or word element.

3. the study of historical linguistic change, esp. as manifested in individual words.

[1350–1400; Middle English < Latin etymologia < Greek etymología; see etymon, -logy]

et`y•mo•log′i•cal (-məˈlɒdʒ ɪ kəl) adj.

et`y•mo•log′i•cal•ly, adv.

et`y•mol′o•gist, n.

Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

etymology

the branch of linguistics that studies the origin and history of words. — etymologist, n. — etymologie, etymological, adj.

See also: Language

---

the study of the origin and history of individual words. — etymologist, n. — etymological, adj.

See also: Linguistics

-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

etymology

1. The study of the origins and development of words.

2. The study of the history of words, tracing them back to their earliest recorded forms.

Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group Copyright © 2008 by Diagram Visual Information Limited

13 —
Etymology. What
makes it important for contemporary lexicology? The role and place of
borrowings in English word-stock.

Etymology
(Gr) — etymon («true science») + legein («speak»)

Etymology is the branch of Lexicology which studies the source of
borrowing and the origin of Ws, the processes of adopting new Ws.

Motivation for studying etymology: the memory can not be overloaded
with Ws, you may learn by associations.

The etymology of a word refers
to its origin and the historical roots of the term as a linguistic
form. Etymology, in general, is the theory and study of the origins
and history of linguistic form., it’s a science of true sense of a
w, studies the origin, history and changes in the meaning of the
word.

Studies the following
problems:

1) native ws and borrowings

2)
assimilation& its types and degrees

3) ways of enriching E
w-stock.

English
wordstock is rich and of mixed character: 70% of words are
borrowings!

e.g.
money < OFr monei < Latin. moneta

Chronological
periods of English:

—
Old English 5-11 c AD (Anglo-Saxon)

—
Middle English 1066 (The Norman conquest)* — 15 c AD

—
The New English (1475) — Modern English

According
to origin all the words are divided into 2 sets: native and borrowed.

Native
words fall into 3 layrs:

1)
wors of Indo-European stock have cognates (words of the same origin)
in different Indo-European languages

e.g.
members of family (mother, brother, son, daughter), parts of body
(arm, eye, foot, heart), periods of time (night, day), animals (cat,
wolf, goose), numerals.

2)
words of Germanic origin have parallels in German, Norwegian, Sweish,
Dutch, Icelandic… (cow, horse, fox, winter, summer, shop, iron,
deep, good, green..)

3)
words of Anglo-Saxon origin (later than the 5th century AD) have NO
cognates: bird (OE bridd), dog (OE dogca), boy, girl, daisy, lord,
lady, always.

These
are basic words in English, most frequent: 80% (be, have, i, you,
she, should..)

BORROWING
is the process and result of adopting words, word-groups and parts of
words always within the words

Borrowings can be classified according to different criteria:

a) according to the aspect which is borrowed,

b) according to the degree of assimilation,

c) according to the language from which the word was borrowed.

English
is called the recipient language as it «receives» the word
the «giving» language is sourse.

paper
(E) < papier (Fr.) < papyrus (Lat.) < papyros (Gr.) The
sourse of borrowing is French. The origin is Greek.

Loan
translations — words and expressions formed in the recepient language
acc to the pattern of the sourse:

mother
tongue < lingua materna (Lat)

sweet
life < dolce vita (It)

hand-to-hand
< mano a mano (Sp)

WHY
ARE WORDS BORROWED?

1)
to fill the gaps in the vocabulary (butter, plum, beet, karaoki,
sushi)

2)
to show a new shade of meaning > synonyms: love, like + admire,
adore (Fr)

3)
blind borrowings (no one knows why)

WHAT
HAPPENS TO BORROWINGS?

• Assimilation

the
adaptation of borrowed words to the new linguistic environment

It
is determined by 3 factors:

1)
the nature of contacts

2)
the time of adoption

3)
the degree of genetic proximity

Type
of assimilation:

—
complete (perfectly assimilated)

—
partial

(name
objects which dont exist)

(not
assimilated grammatically: datum-data, nucleus — nucleai)

(not
assimilated phonetically: garage-party)

(not
graphically assimilated: cafe, queue, picturesque)

—
Barbarisms (not assimilated at all): curriculum vitae (Lat), carte
blanche (Fr), siloviki (R), ciao (It)

English continues to take in foreign words , but now the quantity of
borrowings is not so abundunt as it was before. All the more so,
English now has become a «giving» language, it has become Lingva
franca of the twentieth century.

etymology (words)

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

(1) Etymology refers to the origin or derivation of a word (also known as lexical change). Adjective: etymological.

(2) Etymology is the branch of linguistics concerned with the history of the forms and meanings of words.

From the Greek, «true sense of a word»

Pronunciation: ET-i-MOL-ah-gee

Etymology in Literature and Newspapers

Authors and journalists have attempted to explain etymology over the years, as these quotes demonstrate.

Mark Twain

• «Ours is a mongrel language which started with a child’s vocabulary of 300 words, and now consists of 225,000; the whole lot, with the exception of the original and legitimate 300, borrowed, stolen, smooched from every unwatched language under the sun, the spelling of each individual word of the lot locating the source of the theft and preserving the memory of the revered crime.»
  (Autobiography)

Josephine Livingstone

• — «Rote learning is better swallowed when mixed with lessons in etymology and the history of the language.
  «Learning about etymology can help with learning other languages, too. Take a simple word like ‘justice.’ You’ve probably known how to spell it for so long that you’ve forgotten that the ending (spelling the sound ‘iss’ as ‘ice’) is counterintuitive to a lot of children. Explaining that the word is borrowed from French, however, might make it clearer. Sounded out in French, the sound at the end makes a bit more sense (by analogy to a place like Nice). A very brief explanation of this kind is a chance for a short history lesson (French was spoken at the medieval court in England) and a reminder that children already know a lot more French than they realise.
  «Teaching spelling in this way may make learning it more interesting but also encourage creativity.»
  («Spelling It Out: Is It Time English Speakers Loosened Up?» The Guardian [UK], October 28, 2014)

Etymology in Academics

Academicians, linguists, and grammarians have also worked to explain the importance of etymology both in terms of word origin and spelling, as these passages show.

David Wolman

• «As early as the 15th century, scribes and early printers performed cosmetic surgery on the lexicon. Their goal was to highlight the roots of words, whether for aesthetic pizzazz, homage to etymology, or both. The result was a slew of new silent letters. Whereas debt was spelled det, dett, or dette in the Middle Ages, the ‘tamperers,’ as one writer calls them, added the b as a nod to the word’s Latin origin, debitum. The same goes for changes like the b in doubt (dubium), the o in people (populous), the c in victuals (victus), and the ch in school (scholar).»
  (Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling. Harper, 2010)

Anatoly Liberman

• «The origin of words that reproduce natural sounds is self-explanatory. French or English, cockoo and miaow are unquestionably onomatopoeias. If we assume that growl belongs with gaggle, cackle, croak, and creak and reproduces the sound it designates, we will be able to go a bit further. Quite a few words in the languages in the world begin with gr- and refer to things threatening or discordant. From Scandanavian, English has grue, the root of gruesome (an adjective popularized by Walter Scott), but Old Engl. gryre (horror) existed long before the emergence of grue-. The epic hero Beowulf fought Grendel, an almost invincible monster. Whatever the origin of the name, it must have been frightening even to pronounce it.»
  (Word Origins And How We Know Them: Etymology for Everyone. Oxford University Press, 2005)

The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia

• The root-meaning of the name (from Gothic root gheu; Sanskrit hub or emu, «to invoke or to sacrifice to») is either «the one invoked» or «the one sacrificed to.» From different Indo-Germanic roots (div, «to shine» or «give light»; thes in thessasthai «to implore») come the Indo-Iranian deva, Sanskrit dyaus (gen. divas), Latin deus, Greek theos, Irish and Gaelic dia, all of which are generic names; also Greek Zeus (gen. Dios, Latin Jupiter (jovpater), Old Teutonic Tiu or Tiw (surviving in Tuesday), Latin Janus, Diana, and other proper names of pagan deities. The common name most widely used in Semitic occurs as ‘el in Hebrew, ‘ilu in Babylonian, ‘ilah in Arabic, etc.; and though scholars are not agreed on the point, the root-meaning most probably is «the strong or mighty one.»

Simon Horobin

• «[T]he term etymology . . . is derived from from the Greek etumos, ‘true,’ and referred to a word’s primary, or true, meaning. But, if we were to apply such a concept to the majority of common English words today, this would result in considerable confusion; the word silly is first recorded in the sense ‘pious,’ nice meant ‘foolish,’ and buxom meant ‘obedient.’
  «Dr. Johnson was attracted by the logic of such an approach when he embarked on his dictionary, referring to etymology as the ‘natural and primitive signification’ of a word. But experience led him to recognize the fallacy of this approach, as is apparent from the illustration he included in the entry for etymology: ‘When words are restrained, by common usage, to a particular sense, to run up to etymology, and construe them by Dictionaries, is wretchedly ridiculous.'»
  (How English Became English. Oxford University Press, 2016)

David Crystal

• — «There are hundreds of ‘difficult’ words where an awareness of the etymology can help us predict whether they will contain a double consonant or not. Why irresistible, with two rs? Becomes it comes from ir + resister [in Latin]. Why occurrence with two cs? Because it is from oc (earlier ob) + currere. And why is there no double c in recommend and necessary? Because there was no duplication in the Latin: re + commendare, ne + cedere. I find it hard to resist the conclusion that if children were introduced to some basic etymology, many of the ‘famous’ spelling errors would be avoided.»
  (Spell It Out. Picador, 2014)

Related Articles

In addition to these examples and observations, also see:

• Etymology Exercise: Exploring Word Origins
• Introduction to Etymology
• Word Formation
• Doublets and Triplets
• Etymological Fallacy
• Etymon
• Folk Etymology
• Key Dates in the History of the English Language
• Language Change
• Neil Postman’s Exercise in Etymology
• Semantic Change and the Etymological Fallacy
• Where Does Language Come From?
• Where Do New Words Come From?

How Words Are Made

Readers might also find interest in these articles related to etymology.

• Amelioration
• Back Formation
• Backronym
• Blend
• Borrowing
• Clipping
• Compounding
• Conversion
• Derivation
• Generification
• Hybrid
• Pejoration
• Semantic Change
• Semantic Narrowing