etymology

UK/ˌɛtɪˈmɒləd͡ʒi/US/ˌɛtəˈmɑləd͡ʒi/

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,465 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: etymologies

Etymology is the study of where words come from. The etymology of the word, folk etymology, uncertain etymology.

It tells you a word's history and not its meaning, which is the mistake everybody makes: what a word once meant does not settle what it means now. Folk etymology is an invented origin that people believe and repeat.

Definitions of etymology

1nounetymologyThe study of where words come from.C1
“She studied etymology and traced hundreds of English words back to Latin and Greek.”

etymology is a study.

Where it comes from

Greek etymologia is etymon, the true sense, plus logia, an account.

Middle English
ethymologie
English, today
etymology

Built from

ἔτυμον · Ancient Greek — true sense
-λογία · Ancient Greek — study or logic of
λόγος · Ancient Greek — word; explanation

From Middle English ethymologie. From Middle English ethymologie, from Old French ethimologie, from Latin etymologia, from Ancient Greek ἐτυμολογία, from ἔτυμον (“true sense”) and -λογία (“study or logic of”), from λόγος (“word; explanation”). by surface analysis, etymo- + -logy.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

← Vocabulary