Associations to the word «Etymology»

Wiktionary

ETYMOLOGY, noun. (uncountable) The study of the historical development of languages, particularly as manifested in individual words.
ETYMOLOGY, noun. (countable) An account of the origin and historical development of a word.

Dictionary definition

ETYMOLOGY, noun. A history of a word.
ETYMOLOGY, noun. The study of the sources and development of words.

Wise words

Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.
Nathaniel Hawthorne