Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words &mdash; when they entered a language, from what source, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.

In languages with a long detailed history, etymology makes use of philology, the study of how words change from culture to culture over time. However, etymologists also apply the methods of comparative linguistics to reconstruct information about languages that are too old for any direct information (such as writing) to be known. 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 which 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, nowadays much etymological research is done in language families where little or no early documentation is available, such as  Uralic and  Austronesian.

Etymology of etymology
The word "etymology" itself comes from the Ancient Greek ἐτυμολογία (etumologia) < ἔτυμον (etumon), “‘true sense’” + -λογία (-logia), “‘study of’”, from  (logos), "speech, oration, discourse, word". The Greek poet Pindar (b. approx. 522 BC) employed creative 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 fifteenth century. Etymologicum genuinum is a grammatical encyclopedia edited at Constantinople in the ninth century, one of several similar Byzantine works. The fourteenth-century Legenda Aurea begins each vita of a saint with a fanciful excursus in the form of an etymology.

Types of word origins
Etymological theory recognizes that words originate through a limited number of basic mechanisms, the most important of which are the following:


 * Borrowing, i.e. the adoption of loanwords from other languages.
 * Word formation such as derivation and  compounding.
 * Onomatopoeia and sound symbolism, i.e. the creation of imitative words.

While the origin of newly emerged words is often more or less transparent, it tends to become obscured through time due to:


 * Sound change: for example, it is not obvious at first sight that English set is related to sit (the former is originally a causative formation of the latter), and even less so that bless is related to blood (the former was originally a derivative with the meaning "to mark with blood", or the like).
 * Semantic change: English bead originally meant "prayer", and acquired its modern sense through the practice of counting prayers with beads.

Most often combinations of etymological mechanisms apply. For example, the German word bitte (please) the German word beten (to pray) and the Dutch word bidden (to pray) are related through sound and meaning to the English word bead. The combination of sound change and semantic change often creates etymological connections that are impossible to detect by merely looking at the modern word-forms. For instance, English lord comes from Old English hlāf-weard, meaning literally "bread guard". The components of this compound, in turn, yielded modern English loaf and ward.

Methods of etymology
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 variation between dialects, which may yield clues of its earlier history.
 * The comparative method. By a systematic comparison of related languages, etymologists can detect which words derive from their common ancestor language and which were instead later borrowed from another language.
 * The study of semantic change. Etymologists often have to make hypotheses about changes of 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 can be substantiated by showing that the same type of change has occurred in many other languages as well.

English etymology
As a language, English is derived from the Anglo-Saxon, a West Germanic variety, although its current vocabulary includes words from many languages. The Anglo-Saxon roots can 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/ich; thou/Du; we/wir; she/sie. 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, much of which is borrowed from French. Though more than half of the words in English either come from the French language or have a French cognate, most of the common words used are still of Germanic origin. For an example of the etymology of an English irregular verb of Germanic origin, see the etymology of the word go.

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 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 cognate with the modern French bœuf, meaning the meat of a cow; veal with veau, meaning calf meat; pork with porc, meaning pig meat; and poultry with poulet, meaning chicken. This relationship carries over into the names for farm animals where the cognate is with modern German. For example swine/Schwein; cow/Kuh; calf/Kalb; sheep/Schafe. It has been asserted that the reason why the foodstuff has the Norman name, and the animal the Anglo-Saxon name, was due to the fact that the Norman rulers who ate meat (meat was an expensive commodity and could rarely be afforded by the Anglo-Saxons), and the Anglo-Saxons who farmed the animals. Others dispute this.

English words of more than two syllables are likely to come from French, often with modified terminations. For example, the French words for syllable, modified, terminations and example are syllabe, modifié, terminaisons and exemple. In many cases, the English form of the word is more conservative (that is, has changed less) than the French form. Polysyllabic words in English also carry connotations of better education or politeness.

English has proven accommodating to words from many languages. Scientific terminology relies heavily on words of Latin and Greek origin. Spanish has contributed many words, particularly in the southwestern United States. Examples include buckaroo from vaquero or "cowboy", alligator from el lagarto or "the lizard", and rodeo. Cuddle, eerie and greed come from Scots;, mosque, muslim, apricot, adobe, alcohol, algorithm, assassin, cotton, caliber,sherif, orange, julep, hazard, candy, cat, jar, jacket,  safari, sofa and zero from Arabic;  honcho, sushi, and tsunami from Japanese; dim sum, gung ho, kowtow, kumquat, ketchup, and typhoon from Cantonese Chinese; behemoth, hallelujah, Satan, jubilee, and rabbi from Hebrew; taiga, sable and sputnik from Russian; galore, whiskey, phoney and Tory from Irish; guru,karma,pandit from Sanskrit; kampong and amok from Malay; and boondocks from the Tagalog word bundok. See also loanword.

History of etymology
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, with its roots no deeper than the 18th century. From Antiquity through the 17th century, from  to Pindar to Sir Thomas Browne, etymology had been a form of witty wordplay, in which the supposed origins of words were changed to satisfy contemporary requirements.

Ancient Sanskrit etymology
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 the basis of historical linguistics and modern etymology. Four of the most famous Sanskrit linguists are:


 * Yaska (c. 7th-6th century BCE)
 * (c. 520-460 BCE)
 * (2nd century BCE)
 * (2nd century BCE)

Though they are not the earliest Sanskrit grammarians, they follow a line of more ancient grammar people of Sanskrit dating back up to several centuries earlier. 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 of the previously mentioned linguists involve extensive studies on the etymology (called Nirukta or Vyutpatti in Sanskrit) of Sanskrit words, because the ancient Indo-Aryans considered 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 etymology
One of the earliest philosophical texts of the Classical Greek period to deal with etymology was the Socratic dialogue  Cratylus (c. 360 BC) 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 ("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 any thing 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."

Plutarch's etymology of "syncretism", involving Cretans banding together, rather than a parallel to concrete or accrete, is uncritically accepted even today (see Syncretism). Degrading and insulting pseudo-etymologies were a standard weapon of Jerome's arsenal of sarcasm. A modern false etymology claims that ANTHROPOS, "human being," comes from ANA and OPSOMAI--"one who looks up." This not only is an irrelevant human characteristic, but it also fails to account for some of the letters. Better would be ANTI, "back and forth," RHETHEIS, "making a sound," and EPOS, "word": "a creature that speaks back."

Without doubt, the most important Roman work containing - albeit mostly erroneous - etymologies was the famous multi-volume De Lingua Latina written by Varro.

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 riff 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.."

Modern etymology
One of the founding fathers of modern etymology was without doubt William Jones. Young William learned Latin, Greek and Persian; later, he became a kind of linguistic prodigy and by the end of his life, he spoke 28 languages. In 1783, he was sent to India to serve as a judge at the Supreme Court of Bengal. As was his custom, he almost immediately sat down and started to study a language, this time that of the old local law books, Sanskrit. Soon, he found the following - for him, astounding - similarities between Sanskrit and Latin:

Sanskrit: trayas, sapta, ashta, nava, sarpa, raja, devas - Latin: tres, septem, octo, novem, serpens, rex, deus (English meanings: three, seven, eight, nine, snake, king, god)

In 1786, he published "The Sanscrit Language", most probably the first book ever to deal with Indo-European linguistics.

A little later, in the 19th century, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche used etymological strategies (principally, and most famously, in On the Genealogy of Morals, but also elsewhere) to argue that moral values have definite historical (specifically cultural) origins where modulations in meaning regarding certain concepts (such as "good" and "evil") showed how these ideas had changed over time, according to which value-system appropriated them. Although many of Nietzsche's etymologies are wrong, the strategy has gained popularity in the 20th century, with philosophers such as Jacques Derrida using etymologies to indicate former meanings of words with view to decentring the "violent hierarchies" of Western metaphysics.

Large-Scale Online

 * Online Etymology Dictionary — A site created by one person (Douglas Harper) using multiple etymological references, often with anecdotal information. (Wikipedia has more information on the Online Etymology Dictionary.)
 * American Heritage Dictionary — A full-scale dictionary emphasising the earliest theoretical Proto-Indo-European origins of English words, including an interactive list of Proto-Indo-European roots.
 * Merriam-Webster Dictionary — A full-scale dictionary with traditional etymologies traced usually no further than Latin.
 * Word Spy — Site dedicated to recently coined words and existing words revived into modern usage.
 * An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary — The largest dictionary covering the earliest stages of the English language.

Other

 * World Wide Words — Etymology newsletter.
 * Double-Tongued Dictionary — A dictionary featuring dated citations.
 * Behind the Name — Database of the history and etymology of names in dozens of languages.
 * Take Our Word — Etymology magazine.
 * Take Our Word Bibliography of etymological dictionaries.
 * Word Origins (including phrases).
 * Words origins — Long single-page reference.
 * Origin Trail — Wiki-based site devoted to the study of origins.

Specialist

 * Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature
 * Oxford Etymologist — Anatoly Liberman, the Oxford Eytmologist writes a weekly column.

Podcasts

 * Podictionary — The audio word-a-day.
 * A Way with Words — A call-in radio show that often addresses word origins.

Indo-European languages

 * — IEED — Indo-European Etymological Dictionary
 * — Indo-European Etymology by S. A. Starostin et al.
 * — Gothic Etymology by Andras Rajki
 * — Gaelic Etymology by A. MacBain
 * — Swedish Etymology by Elof Hellquist
 * — Nepali Etymology by R. L. Turner
 * Large Etymological Dictionary of Russian language
 * OOmnik Korneslov Project — Lexical roots and their derivatives of Russian language

Altaic languages

 * — Altaic Etymology by S. A. Starostin et al.
 * — Gagauz Etymology by Andras Rajki
 * — Mongolian Etymology by Andras Rajki

Uralic languages

 * — Uralic Etymology by S. A. Starostin et al.
 * — Finnish Etymology by Andras Rajki
 * — Lapp Etymology

Afroasiatic languages

 * — Afroasiatic Etymology by S. A. Starostin et al.
 * — Arabic Etymology by Andras Rajki

Creole languages and Conlangs

 * — Tok Pisin Etymology by F. Mihalic
 * — Esperanto Etymology by Andras Rajki

Other languages

 * South Dravidian Etymology
 * — Dravidian Etymology by T. Burrow
 * — Swahili Etymology by Andras Rajki
 * — Waray Etymology by Andras Rajki
 * — Maori Etymology by Tregear
 * — Thai Etymology by M. Haas
 * — Indonesian Etymology by S. M. Zain
 * — Chinese Etymology by W. Baxter

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