Etymology
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Etymology (
For languages with a long
Even though etymological research originated from the philological tradition, much current etymological research is done on language families where little or no early documentation is available, such as Uralic and Austronesian.
Etymology
The word etymology is derived from the Ancient Greek word ἐτυμολογία (ἐτυμολογία), itself from ἔτυμον (ἔτυμον), meaning 'true sense or sense of a truth', and the suffix -logia, denoting 'the study or logic of'.[4][5]
The term etymon refers to the predicate (i.e. stem etymon that was once meaningful, Latin castrum 'fort'.
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 variations between dialects, which may yield clues about its earlier history.
- The comparative method. By a systematic comparison of related languages, etymologists may often be able to detect which words derive from their common ancestor language and which were instead later borrowed from another language.
- The study of semantic change. Etymologists must often make hypotheses about changes in the 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 may be substantiated by showing that the same type of change has occurred in 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
(i.e., the creation of imitative words such as "click" or "grunt").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 readily obvious that the English word set is related to the word sit (the former is originally a causative formation of the latter). It is even less obvious that bless is related to blood (the former was originally a derivative with the meaning "to mark with blood").
Semantic change may also occur. For example, the English word bead originally meant "prayer". It acquired its modern meaning through the practice of counting the recitation of prayers by using beads.
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, which began no earlier than the 18th century. From
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 with 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(6th-4th centuries BCE)
- Patañjali (2nd century BCE)
These linguists were not the earliest Sanskrit grammarians, however. They followed a line of ancient grammarians of Sanskrit who lived several centuries earlier like
The analyses of
Ancient Greco-Roman
One of the earliest philosophical texts of the Classical Greek period to address etymology was the
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 overall. Others make the word refer to exceptions of impossible cases; the priests were to perform all the duties possible; if anything lays beyond their power, the exception was not to be cavilled. 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.
Medieval
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.[9]
Modern era
Etymology in the modern sense emerged in the late 18th-century European academia, within the context of the wider "
The origin of modern
The study of etymology in
Notable etymologists
- Ernest Klein (1899–1983), Hungarian-born Romanian-Canadian linguist, etymologist
- Marko Snoj (born 1959), Indo-Europeanist, Slavist, Albanologist, lexicographer, and etymologist
- Anatoly Liberman (born 1937), linguist, medievalist, etymologist, poet, translator of poetry and literary critic
- Michael Quinion (born c. 1943)
See also
- Examples
- Fallacies
- Bongo-Bongo – Name for an imaginary language in linguistics
- Etymological fallacy – Fallacy that a word's history defines its meaning
- False cognate – Words that look or sound alike, but are not related
- False etymology – Popular, but false belief about word origins
- Folk etymology – Process of reinterpretive word formation
- Malapropism – Misuse of a word
- Pseudoscientific language comparison – Form of pseudo-scholarship
- Linguistic studies and concepts
- Diachrony and synchrony – Complementary viewpoints in linguistic analysis
- Historical linguistics – Study of language change over time
- Lexicology – Linguistic discipline studying words
- Philology – Study of language in historical sources
- Proto-language – Common ancestor of a language family
- Onomastics – Study of proper names of all kinds
- Toponymy – Study of place names
- Wörter und Sachen – science school of linguistics
- Processes of word formation
- Cognate – Words inherited by different languages
- Epeolatry
- Neologism – Recent term that is gaining acceptance
- Phono-semantic matching – Type of multi-source neologism
- Semantic change – Evolution of a word's meaning
- Suppletion – A word having inflected forms from multiple unrelated stems
Notes
- ISBN 0-19-861263-X– p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the scientific study of words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time".
- ^ Etymology: The history of a word or word element, including its origins and derivation
- ^ "Etymology". www.etymonline.com.
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "etymology". Online Etymology Dictionary.
- Perseus Project.
- ISBN 978-1403917232.
- ISBN 978-1403917232.
- ISBN 9780859917711.
- ^ "Medieval Sourcebook: The Golden Legend: Volume 2 (full text)". Archived from the original on 2000-12-09. Retrieved 2005-05-28.
- ^ Szemerényi 1996:6
- ^ LIBRARY, SHEILA TERRY/SCIENCE PHOTO. "Sir William Jones, British philologist - Stock Image - H410/0115". Science Photo Library.
References
- Alfred Bammesberger. English Etymology. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1984.
- Philip Durkin. "Etymology", in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edn. Ed. Keith Brown. Vol. 4. Oxford: Elsevier, 2006, pp. 260–7.
- Philip Durkin. The Oxford Guide to Etymology. Oxford/NY: Oxford University Press, 2009.
- William B. Lockwood. An Informal Introduction to English Etymology. Montreux, London: Minerva Press, 1995.
- Yakov Malkiel. Etymology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
- Alan S. C. Ross. Etymology, with a special reference to English. Fair Lawn, N.J.: Essential Books; London: Deutsch, 1958.
- Michael Samuels. Linguistic Evolution: With Special Reference to English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.
- Bo Svensén. "Etymology", chap. 19 of A Handbook of Lexicography: The Theory and Practice of Dictionary-Making. Cambridge/NY: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
- Walther von Wartburg. Problems and Methods in Linguistics, rev. edn. with the collaboration of Stephen Ullmann. Trans. Joyce M. H. Reid. Oxford: Blackwell, 1969.
External links
