Definition:
(1) The origin or derivation of a word. (2) The branch of linguistics concerned with the history of the forms and meanings of words. See also:
- Introduction to Etymology
- Amelioration
- Back Formation
- Blend
- Borrowing
- Clipping
- Compounding
- Conversion
- Derivation
- Folk Etymology
- Generification
- Hybrid
- Inflection
- Pejoration
- Semantic Narrowing
Etymology:
From the Greek, "true sense of a word"Examples and Observations:
- "Ours is a mongrel language which started with a child's vocabulary of 300 words, and now consists of 225,000; the whole lot, with the exception of the original and legitimate 300, borrowed, stolen, smooched from every unwatched language under the sun, the spelling of each individual word of the lot locating the source of the theft and preserving the memory of the revered crime."
(Mark Twain, Autobiography) - "Names, once they are in common use, quickly become mere sounds, their etymology being buried, like so many of the earth's marvels, beneath the dust of habit."
(Salman Rushdie) - Etymology of the Word God:
The root-meaning of the name (from Gothic root gheu; Sanskrit hub or emu, "to invoke or to sacrifice to") is either "the one invoked" or "the one sacrificed to." From different Indo-Germanic roots (div, "to shine" or "give light"; thes in thessasthai "to implore") come the Indo-Iranian deva, Sanskrit dyaus (gen. divas), Latin deus, Greek theos, Irish and Gaelic dia, all of which are generic names; also Greek Zeus (gen. Dios, Latin Jupiter (jovpater), Old Teutonic Tiu or Tiw (surviving in Tuesday), Latin Janus, Diana, and other proper names of pagan deities. The common name most widely used in Semitic occurs as 'el in Hebrew, 'ilu in Babylonian, 'ilah in Arabic, etc.; and though scholars are not agreed on the point, the root-meaning most probably is "the strong or mighty one."
(from The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia)
Pronunciation: ET-i-MOL-ah-gee
