etymology
- For etymology on Wiktionary, see Wiktionary:Etymology.
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
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”).
PronunciationEdit
- (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/
Audio (US) (file) - Hyphenation: e‧ty‧mo‧lo‧gy
- Rhymes: -ɒlədʒi
NounEdit
etymology (plural etymologies)
- (uncountable, linguistics) The study of the historical development of languages, particularly as manifested in individual words.
- (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.
- (countable) An account of the origin and historical development of a word as presented in a dictionary or the like.
- (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 notesEdit
- 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.
HyponymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
study of the historical development of languages, particularly of individual words
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account of the origin and historical development of a word
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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See alsoEdit
Similarly named but unrelated fields
ReferencesEdit
- “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.