Word study and origins

Becoming Interested in the Origin of Words

Words, like facts, are difficult to remember out of context.  Remembering is greatly
facilitated when you have a body of information with which to associate either a word
or a fact.  For words, interesting origins or histories will help provide a context. 
For example, a hippopotamus is a «river horse,» from the Greek hippos, meaning «horse,» and potamos, meaning «river.»

Indiana is called the Hoosier state, and its people Hoosiers.  Why?  In the early days, the pioneers were gruff in manner; when someone knocked
at the front door, a pioneer’s voice would often boom, «Who’s yere?»

If you were offered a Hobson’s choice, would you know what was meant?  Thomas Hobson owned a livery stable in seventeenth-century
England.  He loved his horses, and to prevent any one horse from being overworked,
he hired them out in turn, beginning with stall number one.  Customers had to take
the horses they were given.  Thus Hobson’s choice means no choice at all. (Pauk, p. 314)

Etymology is the study of the origins of words.  The English language is living and growing. 
Although many of our words have been part of our language for many years, new words
are added all the time.  Following are various ways our language is influenced.

• Derived from Foreign Words — English, in many cases, has been commonly expanded by incorporating foreign words
  into it.  Most of our language has ancient Anglo-Saxon or Latin origins.  Other languages
  have also added to our vocabularies.

• Additions through Technology & Products — Our words often reflect current interests, trends, and innovations.  One of the
  most recent contributors to our language has been computer technology, which has created
  words such as bytes, monitor, and disk.

  Another way new words come into our language is through the development of products. 
  Some examples include: Kleenex, Walkman, Scotch tape, Xerox, and Linoleum.

• People’s Names — sometimes when a person invents or introduces something, that thing becomes associated
  with the person’s name.  The person, through time, is forgotten while the name lives
  on in our language.  Examples include:

  • mesmerize — F.A. Mesmer, an Austrian doctor and hypnotist.
  • sideburns — an American English alteration of burnsides, Ambrose E. Burnside, a Union general.

• Words from Letters — The initials for the names of things may actually come to replace the names.  The
  initials become the words that represent the thing, concept, or group.  The following
  are examples of words that have developed from initials.

  • TV — TeleVision
  • DWI — Driving While Intoxicated
  • COD — Cash On Delivery
  • ZIP — Zone Improvement Plan

• Word Histories — Some words also have interesting histories.  Learning the stories behind the meanings
  is a good way to learn those words.  The following examples will give you an idea
  of how history can affect language.

  • footman — It was once thought to bring bad luck if a person stepped on the door threshold
    when entering a house.  Rich people hired a servant to stand at their doors.  His
    job was to guard against a guest’s stepping on the threshold.  The guard became known
    as a footman.
  • hooker — A synonym for prostitute.  The term became popular during the Civil War.  The women
    involved were camp followers.  General «Fighting Joe» Hooker approved their presence
    in order to boost the morale of his men.

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.

We use different languages worldwide to communicate with each other. Every so often we wonder where a word came from. How did a particular word start being used as a common word worldwide and where did it actually originate from. So to find this out we will explore the world of languages and origin of words in this article. This article will cover websites which will let you know the origin of a word.

The study of origin of a word is known as Etymology. You will find that often there are popular tales behind the origin of a word. Most of these tales are just tales and not true, but knowing how the word came into being is equally interesting. So let’s look at these websites to know the origin of words below.

Online Etymology Dictionary

Online etymology dictionary explains you the origin of words and what they meant along with how they would have sounded years back. You would see a date beside each word. This date represents the earliest evidence of this word being used in some sort of written manuscript. Now you can either search for a word you are looking for by typing it in the search box given at the top of the page, otherwise you can browse the words alphabetically. The website has a huge collection of words in it. You can go through the words and find out there origins and meanings as well.

Word Origins by English Oxford Living Dictionaries

Word Origins by English Oxford Living Dictionaries is a good website to know about a words origin. You can check out origin of a word or a phrase. You can search for the word or a phrase you are looking for or can even browse the page to know origin of different words. The website apart from this has a dictionary, thesaurus, grammar helper, etc. As this app has a dictionary, it proves to be a good source for knowing the origin of a word. You can see trending words when you scroll down the page. You can also subscribe to the newsletter on this website to receive updates regarding new words, phrases, etc.

Wordorigins.org

The website Wordorigins.org will let you know the origin of words and phrases. The website has a big list of words which you can go through, or even search for a particular word that you are looking for. The website also has a blog and discussion forum where people can discuss there views. You can login and become a member of the website so you receive regular updates from the website. You can either start browsing words by going to the big list words tab, or by searching for a word. The big list of words is in alphabetical order and there are about 400 words in here. Each word has a interesting story or folklore related to it.

Words of the World

Words of the World is a website which lets you watch videos to let you know the origin of a word. The website explains which language a word originated from through a video. The home page of the website will have a list of words for which you can see a video explaining how the word originated. The words on the home page are given in the format as shown in the screenshot above, but they can also be turned into a neat list if you like. The website is supported by the University of Nottingham and thus is a trusted source.

Learning Nerd

Learning Nerd is another website which has a section on English etymology resources. The website lists references to origin of words like there are word origin dictionaries listed, words with Greek and Latin roots are under a different category, words originating from around the world can be found under international words, and then there is a section for miscellaneous words. You can also play etymology quizzes and listen to etymology podcasts as well. The website itself doesn’t have much information about word origins but will redirect you to another website for your word needs.

Learn That Word

Learn That Word is another website which lists root words and prefixes. The website is pretty basic and a list of words can be seen right on the first page. The words are listed alphabetically, so you can even jump to a word that you are looking for easily. The website will list the root word, its meaning, its place of origin, and then definition and examples. This can be seen in the screenshot above.

These are the websites I found which let you know the origin of a word. Go through them and let me know which one you liked most. If you think there is a website which could be included in this article then leave a comment below.

We can imagine words as travelers: they start off young and one-dimensional in one part of the world, and travel around linguistic families, gaining and shedding meaning as they go. Their spelling and pronunciation morph and change, but they’re usually still recognizable as their younger selves. Sometimes, they get so old they stop traveling and drop off the map. Sometimes, they’re bold and they jump from one linguistic family to another. The history and journey of words is pretty fascinating, so read on to find out more about etymology in English, the study of the origin of words.

• What is etymology?
• Etymology in the English language
• 8 English words with an interesting etymology

What is etymology?

Ever wondered why some languages have a lot of words in common? Etymology can tell you why. Etymology is the study of the history of words, or the study of word origins. It traces a word from its earliest beginnings to where it is now and looks at all the places it stopped in between.  

Etymology in the English language

A lot of English words come from Latin, often via French. Similar words can be found in other Latin-based languages like Italian and Romanian. Many other English words come from Germanic languages, and similar words appear in languages like Dutch and German. 

How can etymology help me?

Etymology can help you understand your native language better. It can also teach you about the common root of words in several languages. That often means that you can recognize words in other languages without being told exactly what they mean. 

Take the word ‘robot’ which comes from the Czech word robotnik meaning ‘laborer’. You can see variations of the word robotnik in lots of other Slavic languages meaning ‘worker’ or ‘manual laborer’, as well as the word robota, meaning ‘work’. Learning the root of one word allows you to understand words in a host of different languages. Etymology can help you take some shortcuts in language learning and who doesn’t want that? 

8 English words with an interesting etymology

1. Dungarees

The word ‘dungarees’ comes from the Hindi word dungri. The meaning of dungri is ‘coarse calico’ (the material dungarees were originally made of) and it comes from the village of Dungri, which was just outside Mumbai, and was where dungarees were originally made. 

2. Whiskey

The origin of the word ‘whiskey’ is, not surprisingly, Gaelic, a language used in Ireland and Scotland. Uisge beatha or usquebaugh is the Gaelic word for whiskey and it was corrupted into English as ‘whiskey’. It translates as ‘water of life’, which is fitting for when you’re drinking it but maybe not so much for the day after.  

3. Clue

This word is a different spelling of the Germanic word clew which means a ball of thread or yarn. It originally comes from the ‘clew of thread’ which was to Theseus to use as a guide out of the Labyrinth in Greek mythology. This is a good example of a word gaining meaning, because nowadays, when you say “Give me a clue”, you don’t want a ball of yarn, you want some helpful information. 

4. Tattoo

Tattoo comes from the Polynesian words ta-tau or ta-tu, both of which mean ‘mark on the skin’. It first popped up in English in the late 18th century after Captain Cook returned to England from Tahiti, where he had seen people with lots of tattoos. 

5. Safari

The Arabic word for ‘journey’ or ‘expedition’ is safar, and this is the origin of the word ‘safari’. The word travelled from Arabic into Swahili, and then on into English in the mid 19th century. It’s now used in English to talk about a journey into the wild to see animals in their natural environments. 

6. Hooch

‘Hooch’ is a slang word for alcohol in English, especially strong alcohol which is brewed illegally at home. It’s a shortened form of Hoochinoo, which was the name of an indigenous Alaskan group who made liquor. This so-called hooch (which was apparently pretty nasty tasting) became popular with miners during the 1898 Klondike gold rush and the word has remained in English since. 

7. Barbarian

This word comes from Ancient Greek; originally barbaros, it was used to talk about anyone who didn’t speak Greek. This is because the sounds made by foreigners sounded like ‘ba-ba-ba’ to Greek ears. Its negative meaning was added by the Romans, who called any foreigners who didn’t follow Roman traditions ‘barbarians’. 

8. Berserk 

Quite a few words in English also come from the Viking language of Old Norse. ‘Berserk’ is one of these words. It is used in modern English to mean ‘furiously violent or angry’. It’s probably from the Norse words ber ‘bear’ and serkr ‘shirt’, literally ‘a warrior clothed in bearskin’. 

Which words in your language do you think share etymological roots with English ones?

Laura is a freelance writer and was an ESL teacher for eight years. She was born in the UK and has lived in Australia and Poland, where she writes blogs for Lingoda about everything from grammar to dating English speakers. She’s definitely better at the first one. She loves travelling and that’s the other major topic that she writes on. Laura likes pilates and cycling, but when she’s feeling lazy she can be found curled up watching Netflix. She’s currently learning Polish, and her battle with that mystifying language has given her huge empathy for anyone struggling to learn English. Find out more about her work in her portfolio.