This template may be used in Wiktionary entries to indicate a term's immediate ancestor. Note that generally, an "etymon" can refer to any kind of etymological ancestor, but on this page, "etymon" will be used specifically for an immediate ancestor. For example, the etymon of English nexus is Latin nexus, and the etymon of Latin nexus is Latin nectō. Terms can have multiple etymons, so the etymons of English toothbrush are both tooth and brush. Even if the etymology of a term is completely unknown, this template may still be useful.
Current features: automatic categorization, tree generation, text generation (experimental).
Suppose that the etymon of English pay is set to Middle English payen, and the etymon of payen is set to Old French paiier. The template is then able to intelligently connect pay and paiier, even though they are two steps apart. The template thus reduces duplication across entries by making it unnecessary to manually specify that pay and paiier are connected.
To do this, the etymology ID must be specified at every step along the away. Otherwise, there is ambiguity between homographs: when we write pay is from paiier, we really mean pay in the sense "to give money", not "to cover the bottom of a vessel with tar or pitch" (which has a completely different origin). The only way to ensure that the template is able to traverse these etymological chains without getting confused is to ensure that both senses of pay are given unique IDs which allow them to be distinguished. This mirrors the practice of the OED, which identifies these two pays as 1139292520 and 4272270366, respectively. However, unlike in the OED, the identifier should be a word or short phrase which summarizes the definition of the term rather than a meaningless string of numbers. In the case of pay, the two IDs might be give money
and smear
.
The template takes the following parameters:
|1=
(required)|id=
(required){{etymon|en|id=male parent}}
, this etymology section is directly linked to by father#English: male parent. The ID must have at least two characters and must not be the same as the page title.|title=
|title=pōnō
to ensure that the macrons are displayed.|pos=
prefix
, suffix
, interfix
, infix
, root
.|exnihilo=
<language> terms coined ex nihilo
.|tree=
|text=
1
(all steps, no glossary links; the default), -
(single step, no glossary links), +
(single step, glossary links), and ++
(all steps, glossary links).|2=
, |3=
, ...Etymons must be written using the following format: languagecode>term>id
. For example: en>pay>give money
represents English pay (etymology 1). As a shortcut, it's possible to omit the language code (i.e., just writing pay>give money
). In this case, the template will assume that the language is the same as the one set in |1=
.
Each confidence keyword applies to all the etymons that follow it. A confidence keyword is reset by another confidence keyword or a derivation keyword.
Each derivation keyword applies to all the etymons that follow it. A derivation keyword is reset by another derivation keyword. For example, |inh|etymon1|etymon2|bor|etymon3|etymon4
means that a term is inherited from both etymon1 and etymon2 and also borrowed from both etymon3 and etymon4.
{{from}}
, as well as a wide variety of miscellaneous derivations including {{clipping}}
, {{deverbal}}
, {{back-formation}}
, and others.{{derived}}
.{{borrowed}}
.{{learned borrowing}}
.{{semi-learned borrowing}}
.{{orthographic borrowing}}
.{{inherited}}
.{{calque}}
.{{semantic loan}}
.|af|etymon1|etymon2
means etymon1 + etymon2, while |af|etymon2|etymon1
means etymon2 + etymon1, which would be an entirely different word. Corresponds with {{affix}}
, {{compound}}
, and others.{{blend}}
.{{affix}}
, {{compound}}
, and others.Using a keyword not on this list will produce an error.
If the parameter |tree=1
is set, an etymology tree is inserted.
Per an April 2024 vote, each language community decides when it is appropriate to show a tree on a particular entry.[1] Additionally, trees should not be displayed for clear open compounds like United States of America.[2]
{{etymon|en|id=male parent|inh|enm>fader>father}}
(on English father)
This means: father is inherited from Middle English fader.
{{etymon|ine-pro|id=father|af|unc|*peh₂->protect|*-tḗr>agent noun}}
(on Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr)
This means: *ph₂tḗr might come from *peh₂ + *-tḗr. In this case, the etymons are associated with both the derivation keyword "af" and the confidence keyword "unc". Note that since the language is not specified for either etymon, the template assumes that the two etymons are ine-pro
(Proto-Indo-European).
{{etymon|pl|id=floor|podłożyć>put}}
(on Polish podłoga)
This means: podłoga comes from Polish podłożyć. Currently, there is no keyword specifically designating a deverbal. This may be changed in the future.
See Template:etymon/testcases for test cases and more examples of use.
TemplateData for etymon
This template may be used indicate a term's immediate ancestor(s).
Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Language | 1 | The language of the current entry.
| String | required |
Etymology ID | id | The ID of the current etymology section.
| String | required |
Title | title | The title of the current entry (if different from the page title)
| String | optional |
Etymon parameter #1 | 2 | The first etymon parameter. Typically for derivation keyword.
| String | optional |
Etymon parameter #2 | 3 | The second etymon parameter. | String | optional |
Etymon parameter #3 | 4 | The third etymon parameter. | String | optional |
Etymon parameter #4 | 5 | The fourth etymon parameter. | String | optional |
Etymon parameter #5 | 6 | The fifth etymon parameter. | String | optional |
Etymon parameter #6 | 7 | The sixth etymon parameter. | String | optional |
Etymon parameter #7 | 8 | The seventh etymon parameter. | String | optional |
Etymon parameter #8 | 9 | The eighth etymon parameter. | String | optional |
Tree | tree | Set this to "1" to display a tree.
| String | optional |
Text | text | Automatically generates some text (experimental, see documentation).
| String | optional |