Etymology

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Not to be confused with Entomology or Etiology.
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Etymology (/ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/)[1] is the study of the history of words.[1] By extension, the term "the
etymology (of a word)" means the origin of the particular word and for place names, there is a
specific term, toponymy.
For Greek—with a long written history—etymologists make use of texts, and texts about the
language, to gather knowledge about how words were used during earlier periods and when
they entered the language. Etymologists also apply the methods of comparative linguistics to
reconstruct information about languages that are too old for any direct information to be
available.
By analyzing related languages with a technique known as the comparative method, linguists
can make inferences about their shared parent language and its vocabulary. In this way, word
roots have been found that can be traced all the way back to the origin of, for instance,
the Indo-European language family.
Even though etymological research originally grew from the philological tradition, much current
etymological research is done on language families where little or no early documentation is
available, such as Uralic and Austronesian.
 The word etymology derives from the Greek word ἐτυμολογία (etumología), itself
from ἔτυμον (étumon), meaning "true sense", and the suffix -logia, denoting "the study of".[2][3]
In linguistics, the term etymon refers to a word or morpheme (e.g., stem[4] or root[5]) from which
a later word derives. For example, the Latin word candidus, which means "white", is the
etymon of English candid.

Diagram showing relationships between etymologically-related words

Contents

 1Methods
 2Types of word origins
 3English language
o 3.1Assimilation of foreign words
 4History
o 4.1Ancient Sanskrit
o 4.2Ancient Greco-Roman
o 4.3Medieval
o 4.4Modern era
 5See also
 6Notes
 7References
 8External links

Methods[edit]
Etymologists apply a number of methods to study the origins of words, some of which are:

 Philological research. Changes in the form and meaning of the word can be traced with the
aid of older texts, if such are available.
 Making use of dialectological data. The form or meaning of the word might show variations
between dialects, which may yield clues about its earlier history.
 The comparative method. By a systematic comparison of related languages, etymologists
may often be able to detect which words derive from their common ancestor language and
which were instead later borrowed from another language.
 The study of semantic change. Etymologists must often make hypotheses about changes
in the meaning of particular words. Such hypotheses are tested against the general
knowledge of semantic shifts. For example, the assumption of a particular change of
 meaning may be substantiated by showing that the same type of change has occurred in
other languages as well.

Types of word origins[edit]

Etymological theory recognizes that words originate through a limited number of basic
mechanisms, the most important of which are language change, borrowing (i.e., the adoption
of "loanwords" from other languages); word formation such as derivation and compounding;
and onomatopoeia and sound symbolism, (i.e., the creation of imitative words such as "click" or
"grunt").
While the origin of newly emerged words is often more or less transparent, it tends to become
obscured through time due to sound change or semantic change. Due to sound change, it is
not readily obvious that the English word set is related to the word sit (the former is originally
a causative formation of the latter). It is even less obvious that bless is related to blood (the
former was originally a derivative with the meaning "to mark with blood").
Semantic change may also occur. For example, the English word bead originally meant
"prayer". It acquired its modern meaning through the practice of counting the recitation of
prayers by using beads.

English language[edit]
Main article: History of the English language
English derives from Old English (sometimes referred to as Anglo-Saxon), a West
Germanic variety, although its current vocabulary includes words from many languages.[6] The
Old English roots may be seen in the similarity of numbers in English and German,
particularly seven/sieben, eight/acht, nine/neun, and ten/zehn. Pronouns are also
cognate: I/mine/me and ich/mein/mich; thou/thine/thee and du/dein/dich; we/wir and
us/uns; she/sie; your/ihr. However, language change has eroded many grammatical elements,
such as the noun case system, which is greatly simplified in modern English, and certain
elements of vocabulary, some of which are borrowed from French. Although many of the words
in the English lexicon come from Romance languages, most of the common words used in
English are of Germanic origin.
When the Normans conquered England in 1066 (see Norman Conquest), they brought
their Norman language with them. During the Anglo-Norman period, which united insular and
continental territories, the ruling class spoke Anglo-Norman, while the peasants spoke the
vernacular English of the time. Anglo-Norman was the conduit for the introduction of French
into England, aided by the circulation of Langue d'oïl literature from France.
This led to many paired words of French and English origin. For example, beef is related,
through borrowing, to modern
French bœuf, veal to veau, pork to porc, and poultry to poulet. All these words, French and
English, refer to the meat rather than to the animal. Words that refer to farm animals, on the
other hand, tend to be cognates of words in other Germanic languages. For
example, swine/Schwein, cow/Kuh, calf/Kalb, and sheep/Schaf. The variant usage has been
explained by the proposition that it was the Norman rulers who mostly ate meat (an expensive
commodity) and the Anglo-Saxons who farmed the animals. This explanation has passed into
common folklore but has been disputed.
Assimilation of foreign words[edit]
Further information: Loanword and Lists of English words by country or language of origin
English has proved accommodating to words from many languages. Scientific terminology, for
example, relies heavily on words of Latin and Greek origin, but there are a great many non-
scientific examples. Spanish has contributed many words, particularly in the southwestern
United States. Examples include buckaroo, alligator, rodeo, savvy, and states' names such
as Colorado and Florida. Albino, palaver, lingo, verandah,
and coconutfrom Portuguese; diva and prima donna from Italian. Modern French has
contributed café, cinema, naive, nicotine and many more.
Smorgasbord, slalom, and ombudsman are from Swedish, Norwegian and
Danish; sauna from Finnish; adobe, alcohol, algebra, algorithm, apricot, assassin, caliber, cotto
n, hazard, jacket, jar, julep, mosque, Muslim, orange, safari, sofa, and zero from Arabic (often
via other languages); behemoth, hallelujah, Satan, jubilee,
and rabbi from Hebrew; taiga, steppe, Bolshevik, and sputnik from Russian.
Bandanna, bungalow, dungarees, guru, karma, and pundit come from Urdu, Hindi and
ultimately Sanskrit; curry from Tamil; honcho, sushi, and tsunami from Japanese; dim
sum, gung ho, kowtow, kumquat and typhoonfrom Cantonese. Kampong and amok are
from Malay; and boondocks from the Tagalog word for hills or
mountains, bundok. Ketchup derives from one or more South-East Asia and East Indies words
for fish sauce or soy sauce, likely by way of Chinese, though the precise path is
unclear: Malay kicap, Indonesian ketjap, Chinese Min Nan kê-chiap and cognates in
other Chinese dialects.
Surprisingly few loanwords, however, come from other languages native to the British Isles.
Those that exist include coracle, cromlech and
(probably) flannel, gull and penguin from Welsh; galore and whisky from Scottish
Gaelic; phoney, trousers, and Tory from Irish; and eerie and canny from Scots (or
related Northern English dialects).
Many Canadian English and American English words (especially but not exclusively plant and
animal names) are loanwords from Indigenous American languages, such
as barbecue, bayou, chili, chipmunk, hooch, hurricane, husky, mesquite, opossum, pecan, squ
ash, toboggan, and tomato.

History[edit]
The search for meaningful origins for familiar or strange words is far older than the modern
understanding of linguistic evolution and the relationships of languages, which began no earlier
than the 18th century. From Antiquity through the 17th century, from Pāṇini to Pindar to
Sir Thomas Browne, etymology had been a form of witty wordplay, in which the supposed
origins of words were creatively imagined to satisfy contemporary requirements; for example,
the Greek poet Pindar (born in approximately 522 BCE) employed inventive etymologies to
flatter his patrons. Plutarch employed etymologies insecurely based on fancied resemblances
in sounds. Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae was an encyclopedic tracing of "first things" that
remained uncritically in use in Europe until the sixteenth century. Etymologicum genuinum is
a grammatical encyclopedia edited at Constantinople in the ninth century, one of several
similar Byzantine works. The thirteenth-century Legenda Aurea, as written by Jacobus de
Vorgagine, begins each vita of a saint with a fanciful excursus in the form of an etymology.[7]
Ancient Sanskrit[edit]
Main article: Nirukta
The Sanskrit linguists and grammarians of ancient India were the first to make a
comprehensive analysis of linguistics and etymology. The study of Sanskrit etymology has
provided Western scholars with the basis of historical linguistics and modern etymology. Four
of the most famous Sanskrit linguists are:

 Yaska (c. 6th–5th centuries BCE)

 Pāṇini (c. 520–460 BCE)
 Kātyāyana (2nd century BCE)
 Patañjali (2nd century BCE)
These linguists were not the earliest Sanskrit grammarians, however. They followed a line of
ancient grammarians of Sanskrit who lived several centuries earlier like Sakatayana of whom
very little is known. The earliest of attested etymologies can be found in Vedic literature in the
philosophical explanations of the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads.
The analyses of Sanskrit grammar done by the previously mentioned linguists involved
extensive studies on the etymology (called Nirukta or Vyutpatti in Sanskrit) of Sanskrit words,
because the ancient Indo-Aryansconsidered sound and speech itself to be sacred and, for
them, the words of the sacred Vedas contained deep encoding of the mysteries of the soul and
God.
Ancient Greco-Roman[edit]
One of the earliest philosophical texts of the Classical Greek period to address etymology was
the Socratic dialogue Cratylus (c. 360 BCE) by Plato. During much of the
dialogue, Socrates makes guesses as to the origins of many words, including the names of the
gods. In his Odes Pindar spins complimentary etymologies to flatter his patrons. Plutarch (Life
of Numa Pompilius) spins an etymology for pontifex, while explicitly dismissing the obvious,
and actual "bridge-builder":
the priests, called Pontifices.... have the name of Pontifices from potens, powerful, because
they attend the service of the gods, who have power and command over all. Others make the
word refer to exceptions of impossible cases; the priests were to perform all the duties possible
to them; if anything lay beyond their power, the exception was not to be cavilled at. The most
common opinion is the most absurd, which derives this word from pons, and assigns the
priests the title of bridge-makers. The sacrifices performed on the bridge were amongst the
most sacred and ancient, and the keeping and repairing of the bridge attached, like any other
public sacred office, to the priesthood.

Medieval[edit]
Main article: Medieval etymology
Isidore of Seville compiled a volume of etymologies to illuminate the triumph of religion. Each
saint's legend in Jacob de Voragine's Legenda Aurea begins with an etymological discourse on
the saint's name:
Lucy is said of light, and light is beauty in beholding, after that S. Ambrose saith: The nature of
light is such, she is gracious in beholding, she spreadeth over all without lying down, she
passeth in going right without crooking by right long line; and it is without dilation of tarrying,
and therefore it is showed the blessed Lucy hath beauty of virginity without any corruption;
essence of charity without disordinate love; rightful going and devotion to God, without
squaring out of the way; right long line by continual work without negligence of slothful tarrying.
In Lucy is said, the way of light.[8]