etymology

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For etymology on Wiktionary, see Wiktionary:Etymology.

English

Etymology

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 or logic of”), from λόγος (lógos, “word; explanation”).

Pronunciation

Noun

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

etymology (countable and uncountable, plural etymologies)

  2. (uncountable, linguistics) The scientific study of the origin and evolution of a word's semantic meaning across time, including its constituent morphemes and phonemes.
  4. (countable) The entire catalogue of meanings that a word, morpheme, or sign has carried throughout its history.
    Although written the same, the words lead (the metal) and lead (the verb) have totally different etymologies.
    • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎, page 13:
      The etymology of the term Japlish is disputed and contentiously so.
  6. (countable) An account of the origin and historical development of a word as presented in a dictionary or the like.
    Synonym: derivation
    • 2023 July 2, Talia Felix, “Homing in on Harlequin”, in Online Etymology Dictionary‎:
      Where did this name Harlequin (or Arlechin) come from? Most etymologies for the name give the Hellequin theory.
  7. (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

  • 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

Derived terms

Translations

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Translations to be checked

See also

Similarly named but unrelated fields

References

Wikious
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