etymology
- 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 of”), from λόγος (lógos, “word; explanation”).
Pronunciation
- (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
Noun
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, 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.
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- (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.
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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
- onomastics
Derived terms
- etymological
- folk etymology
- global etymology
- popular etymology
- pseudoetymology
- surface etymology
Related terms
- etymologist
- etymologize
- etymon
Translations
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 also
Similarly named but unrelated fields
- entomology
- ethnology
- ethology
- etiology/ aetiology
References
- “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.