Etymology

Etymology is the study of the roots and history of words; 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. 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 effectuated in language families where little or no early documentation is available, such as Uralic and Austronesian.

Methods

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.

Types of word origins

Etymological theory recognizes that words originate through a limited number of basic mechanisms, the most important of which are 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").

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 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 can also occur. For example, the English word 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.

History

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 Pāṇini 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

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. 6th-5th centuries BCE)
Pāṇini (c. 520-460 BCE)
Kātyāyana (2nd century BCE)
Patañjali (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

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." An important Roman work containing - albeit mostly erroneous - etymologies was the multi-volume De Lingua Latina written by Varro.

Medieval

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. ^[1].

Modern era

Etymology in the modern sense emerges in the late 18th century European academia, within the context of the wider "Age of Enlightenment", although preceded by 17th century pioneers such as Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, Vossius, Stephen Skinner, Elisha Coles or William Wotton. The first known systematic attempt to prove the relationship between two languages on the basis of similarity of grammar and lexicon was made by the Hungarian János Sajnovics in 1770, when he attempted to demonstrate the relationship between Sami and Hungarian (work that was later extended to the whole Finno-Ugric language family in 1799 by his fellow countryman Samuel Gyarmathi).^[2] The origin of modern historical linguistics is often traced back to Sir William Jones, an English philologist living in India, who in 1782 observed the genetic relationship between Sanskrit, Greek and Latin. Jones published his The Sanscrit Language in 1786, laying the foundation for the field of Indo-European linguistics.

The study of etymology in Germanic philology was introduced by Rasmus Christian Rask in the early 19th century, and taken to high standards with the German Dictionary of the Brothers Grimm. The successes of the comparative approach culminated in the Neogrammarian school of the late 19th century. Still 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. 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.

Bibliography

Skeat, Walter W. (2000), The Concise Dictionary of English Etymology, repr ed., Diane. (ISBN 0-7881-9161-6)
Skeat, Walter W. (1963) An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, (ISBN 0-19-863104-9)
Snoj, Marko (2005). Etymology. In: Strazny, Philipp (ed.). Encyclopedia of Linguistics. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, vol. 1: A—L, pages 304—306.
C. T. Onions, G. W. S. Friedrichsen, R. W. Burchfield, (1966, reprinted 1992, 1994), Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, (ISBN 0-19-861112-9)
Liberman, Anatoly (2005) "Word Origins...and How We Know Them: Etymology for Everyone", (ISBN 0-19-516147-5)

References

^ Medieval Sourcebook: The Golden Legend: Volume 2 (full text)
^ Szemerényi 1996:6

External links

English language

Reference sources
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.)
Merriam-Webster Dictionary — A full-scale dictionary with traditional etymologies traced usually no further than Latin.
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.
WikiName - All About Names - An encyclopedia including the etymology of names, companies, countries, etc.
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.
Word Spy — Site dedicated to recently coined words and existing words revived into modern usage.

Specialist

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

Radio and podcast

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

Other online etymological dictionaries

Indo-European languages

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

Afroasiatic languages

[7] — Afroasiatic Etymology by S. A. Starostin et al.
[8] — Arabic Etymology by Andras Rajki

Altaic languages

[9] — Altaic Etymology by S. A. Starostin et al.
[10] — Gagauz Etymology by Andras Rajki
[11] — Mongolian Etymology by Andras Rajki

Bantu languages

[12] — Bantu Etymology
[13] — Swahili Etymology by Andras Rajki

Creole languages and conlangs

[14] — Tok Pisin Etymology by F. Mihalic
[15] — Morisyen Etymology by Andras Rajki
[16] — Esperanto Etymology by Andras Rajki

Malayo-Polynesian languages

[17] — Indonesian Etymology by S. M. Zain
[18] — Maori Etymology by E. Tregear
[19] — Waray Etymology by Andras Rajki

Uralic languages

[20] — Uralic Etymology by S. A. Starostin et al.
[21] — Finnish Etymology by Andras Rajki
[22] — Lapp Etymology

Other languages and language families

[23] — Basque Etymology based on the works of L. Trask
[24] — Chinese Etymology by W. Baxter
[25] — Dravidian Etymology by T. Burrow
[26] — Kartvelian Etymology by G. A. Klimov
[27] — Munda Etymology by D. Stampe & al.
[28] — Thai Etymology by M. Haas
[29] — Shuowen Jiezi, early 2nd century CE Chinese Etymology dictionary by Xu Shen
South Dravidian Etymology

[1] Medieval Sourcebook: The Golden Legend: Volume 2 (full text)

[ssix-2] Szemerényi 1996:6

[1]

[2]