etymology

et·y·mol·o·gy  (t-ml-j)

n. pl. et·y·mol·o·gies

1. The origin and historical development of a linguistic form as shown by determining its basic elements, earliest known use, and changes in form and meaning, tracing its transmission from one language to another, identifying its cognates in other languages, and reconstructing its ancestral form where possible.

2. The branch of linguistics that deals with etymologies.

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[Middle English etimologie, from Old French ethimologie, from Medieval Latin ethimologia, from Latin etymologia, from Greek etumologi : etumon, true sense of a word; see etymon + -logi, -logy.]

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etymology

Noun

pl -gies

1. the study of the sources and development of words

2. an account of the source and development of a word [Greek etumon basic meaning + -logy]

etymological adj
etymologist n

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etymology

the branch of linguistics that studies the origin and history of words. — etymologist, n. — etymologie, etymological, adj.

See also: Language

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the study of the origin and history of individual words. — etymologist, n. — etymological, adj.

See also: Linguistics

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	etymology - a history of a word account, chronicle, history, story - a record or narrative description of past events; "a history of France"; "he gave an inaccurate account of the plot to kill the president"; "the story of exposure to lead" folk etymology - a popular but erroneous etymology
	2.	etymology - the study of the sources and development of words linguistics - the scientific study of language lexicostatistics - a statistical technique used in glottochronology; used to estimate how long ago different languages evolved from a common source language

Translations

etymology [ɛtɪˈmɔlədʒɪ] n → etimología

etymology [ɛtɪˈmɔlədʒɪ] n → étymologie f

etymology [ɛtɪˈmɔlədʒɪ] n → Etymologie f;

(of word) → Herkunft f

etymology [ɛtɪˈmɔlədʒɪ] n → etimologia