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Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, [ 1] analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation[ 2] – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one through popular usage. [ 3][ 4][ 5] The form or the meaning of an archaic ...
Online Etymology Dictionary. The Online Etymology Dictionary or Etymonline, sometimes abbreviated as OED (not to be confused with the Oxford English Dictionary, which the site often cites), is a free online dictionary that describes the origins of English words, written and compiled by Douglas R. Harper. [ 1]
Linguistics. Etymology ( / ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi /, ET-im-OL-ə-jee[ 1]) is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of a word's semantic meaning across time, including its constituent morphemes and phonemes. [ 2][ 3] It is a subfield of historical linguistics, philology, and semiotics, and draws upon comparative semantics, morphology ...
Webster's Dictionary. Webster's Dictionary is any of the English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by Noah Webster (1758–1843), an American lexicographer, as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's name in his honor. " Webster's " has since become a genericized trademark in the ...
The etymology is disputed: two possible sources are an Algonquian word for "counsel", 'cau´-cau-as´u'; or the Algonquian cawaassough, meaning an advisor, talker, or orator. [11] Chinkapin (definition) From Powhatan chechinquamins, [12] reconstituted as */t͡ʃiːht͡ʃiːnkweːmins/, the plural form. [13] Chipmunk (definition)
An Universal Etymological English Dictionary was a dictionary compiled by Nathan Bailey (or Nathaniel Bailey) and first published in London in 1721. It was the most popular English dictionary of the eighteenth century until the publication of Samuel Johnson 's massive dictionary in 1755. As an indicator of its popularity, the dictionary reached ...
Some Greek words were borrowed into Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages. English often received these words from French. Some have remained very close to the Greek original, e.g., lamp (Latin lampas; Greek λαμπάς ). In others, the phonetic and orthographic form has changed considerably.
Etymological dictionaries are the product of research in historical linguistics. For many words in any language, the etymology will be uncertain, disputed, or simply unknown. In such cases, depending on the space available, an etymological dictionary will present various suggestions and perhaps make a judgement on their likelihood, and provide ...