etymology definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (8)

American Heritage Dictionary (2)

noun 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.
noun The branch of linguistics that deals with etymologies.

Century Dictionary (3)

That part of philology which treats of the history of words in respect both to form and to meanings, tracing them back toward their origin, and setting forth and explaining the changes they have undergone. Etymology treats of the structure and history of words. It includes classification, inflection, and derivation. F. A. March, Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 33.
Specifically The particular history of a word, including an account of its various forms and senses. In its widest sense, the etymology of a word includes all its variations of form and spelling, and all its different meanings and shades of meaning, from its first appearance in the language to the present time, and, further, the same facts concerning the original or the cognate forms of the word in other languages. This would be impracticable for any large number of words, and accordingly the fullest etymologies, as in this dictionary, give but one form or a few typical forms for a given period of a language, or but one form for the whole period of the language, with a like summary treatment of the meanings, a more complete exhibition of forms and meanings being given only at critical or important points in the history. In a very restricted but common acceptation, the word implies merely the “derivation” of the word, namely, the mention of the word or root from which it is derived, as when bishop is said to be “from Greek ἐπίσκοπος,” or chief “from Latin caput.” Expoundinge also and declaringe the etimologie and native signification of suche wordes as we have borowed of the Latines or Frenche menne, not evyn so comonly used in our quotidiene speche. Quoted in Babees Book (E. E. T. S.), p. xxi. This terme [barbarous] being then so vsed by the auncient Greekes, there haue bene since, notwithstanding, who haue digged for the Etimologie somewhat deeper, and many of them haue said that it was spoken by the rude and barking language of the Affricans now called Barbarians. Puttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 210. Before attempting an etymology, ascertain the earliest form and use of the word; and observe chronology. Observe history and geography; borrowings are due to actual contact. Observe phonetic laws. Skeat, Etym. Dict., Pref., p. xxi. Those etymologies which seemed strong because of likeness in sound, until it was shown that likeness in sound made them impossible. George Eliot, Middlemarch, II. 59.
In grammar, that division of grammar which treats of the parts of speech and their inflections.

GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

WordNet (2)

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Another often-mistaken etymology is the name Ajo in Arizona. — VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XVI No 1
Again the etymology is unknown; but it is probably just a facetious or ignorant British variant pronunciation of bosh. — VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol IX No 3
Folk etymology is a notorious King Charles's head for amateurs. — VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol IX No 3
Folk etymology is the kind of scholarship that relates sackbut with bagasse. — VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XX No 2
(When etymology serves political concerns etymology is honored. — VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XV No 2

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derivation · orthography · philology · pronunciation · punctuation · signification · syntax · accidence · grammar · idiom · chronology · prosody

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

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.

Century Dictionary (1)

Early modern English etymologie, etimologie; = German etymologie = Danish Swedish etymologi, from French etymologie, now étymologie = Spanish etimología = Portuguese etymologia = Italian etimologia, from Latin etymologia, Middle Latin also etimologia, ethimologia, from Greek ἐτυμολογία, the analysis of a word so as to find its origin, etymology (translated notatio (see notation) and veriloquium (see veriloquent) by Cicero, and originatio (see origination) by Quintilian), from ἐτυμολόγος, studying etymology, telling the true origin of a word (as a noun, an etymologist), from ἔτυμον, the true literal sense of a word according to its origin, its etymology, + -λογία, from λέγειν, speak, tell: see etymon and -ology.

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