# etymology

Pronunciation: US say "et-uh-MOL-uh-jee" /ˌɛtəˈmɑləd͡ʒi/; UK say "et-i-MOL-uh-jee" /ˌɛtɪˈmɒləd͡ʒi/

## Noun

1. The origin and history of a word or name, including how its form and meaning have changed, or an account of this, as given in a dictionary.
   - Simple: An explanation of where a word or name comes from and how its form and meaning changed.
   - _Each entry ends with a brief etymology tracing the word back through Old French to Latin._
   - _She compared three different etymologies before writing her footnote._
2. The scientific study of the origin of words and of how their forms and meanings have changed over time, down to the sounds and parts they are made of.
   - Simple: The study of where words come from and how their sounds, spellings and meanings changed over time.
   - _Etymology relies on regular sound changes to link English words with their relatives in other languages._
   - _His interest in etymology began with a battered book on English place names._

## Origin

Ancient Greek etumología was built from étumon, meaning "true sense," and -logía, meaning "study of," the latter from lógos ("word, explanation"). It passed into Latin as etymologia, into Old French as ethimologie, and into Middle English as ethymologie.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/etymology (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).