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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]
Meaning Origin language and etymology Example(s) bacillus: rod-shaped Latin baculus, stick Bacillus anthracis: bacteri-Pertaining to bacteria: Latin bacterium; Greek βακτήριον (baktḗrion), small staff bacteriophage, bactericide: balan-of the glans penis or glans clitoridis: Greek βάλανος (bálanos), acorn, glans balanitis: bas-
v. t. e. 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 ...
Other technical terms are words of the common language that are used in an accurate meaning that may differ slightly from their common meaning. For example, in mathematics, " or " means "one, the other or both", while, in common language, it is either ambiguous or means "one or the other but not both" (in mathematics, the latter is called ...
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 ...
Several of the states that derive their names from names used for Native peoples have retained the plural ending in "s": Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, and Texas. One common naming pattern has been as follows: Native tribal group → River → Territory → State.
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 ...
PE1580. A Dictionary of English Etymology is an etymological dictionary of the English language written by Hensleigh Wedgwood and published by Trübner and Company in three volumes from 1859 to 1865 (vol. 1 1859, vol. 2 1862, vol. 3 1865), with a second edition published in 1871. [1] It was reviewed anonymously [2] [3] [4] and by Herbert Coleridge.