From Middle English ethymologie , from Old French ethimologie , from Latin etymologia , from Ancient Greek ἐτυμολογία ( etumología ) , from ἔτυμον ( étumon , “ true sense ” ) and -λογία ( -logía , “ study or logic of ” ) , from λόγος ( lógos , “ word; explanation ” ) .
etymology (countable and uncountable , plural etymologies )
( uncountable , linguistics ) The scientific study of the origin and evolution of a word's semantic meaning across time, including its constituent morphemes and phonemes.
( countable ) The entire catalogue of meanings that a word, morpheme, or sign has carried throughout its history.
Although written the same, the words lead (the metal) and lead (the verb) have totally different etymologies .
2018 , James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide [1] , page 13 :The etymology of the term Japlish is disputed and contentiously so.
( countable ) An account of the origin and historical development of a word as presented in a dictionary or the like.
Synonym: derivation
2023 July 2, Talia Felix, “Homing in on Harlequin”, in Online Etymology Dictionary [2] :Where did this name Harlequin (or Arlechin) come from? Most etymologies for the name give the Hellequin theory.
( countable ) The direct origin of a name, as in who someone was named after.
1996 , The Rock :I'm sure you know the etymology of your name, Goodspeed.
Not to be confused with entomology ( “ the study of insects ” ) or etiology ( “ the study of causes or origins ” ) .
Not to be confused with the origin of the object or person the word refers to.
study of the historical development of languages, particularly of individual words
Afrikaans: etimologie (af)
Albanian: etimologji (sq) f
Arabic: تَأْثِيل m ( taʔṯīl ) , عِلْم تَأْثِيل m ( ʕilm taʔṯīl )
Aragonese: etimolochía f
Armenian: ստուգաբանություն (hy) ( stugabanutʻyun )
Aromanian: etimulughii (roa-rup) f
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܐܵܛܘܿܡܘܿܠܘܿܓ݂ܝܼܵܐ f ( āṭomoloḡīyā ) , ܡܲܒܗܘܼܬ ܡܸܠܹ̈ܐ f ( mabhut millē )
Asturian: etimoloxía (ast) f
Azerbaijani: etimologiya (az)
Basque: etimologia
Belarusian: этымало́гія f ( etymalóhija ) , этымалёгія f ( etymaljóhija ) ( Taraškievica )
Bengali: শব্দতত্ত্ব (bn) ( śobdototto )
Breton: etimologiezh f
Bulgarian: етимоло́гия (bg) f ( etimológija )
Burmese: ဗျုပ္ပတ် (my) ( byuppat )
Carpathian Rusyn: етимоло́ґия f ( etymológyja )
Catalan: etimologia (ca) f
Chinese:
Cantonese: 語源學 / 语源学 ( jyu5 jyun4 hok6 )
Mandarin: 語源學 / 语源学 (zh) ( yǔyuánxué ) , 詞源學 / 词源学 (zh) ( cíyuánxué )
Corsican: etimulugia (co) f
Czech: etymologie (cs) f
Danish: etymologi (da) c
Dutch: etymologie (nl) f , woordherkomst (nl) f
Esperanto: etimologio
Estonian: etümoloogia (et)
Faroese: orðaupprunafrøði f
Finnish: etymologia (fi)
French: étymologie (fr) f
Galician: etimoloxía (gl) f
Georgian: ეტიმოლოგია (ka) ( eṭimologia )
German: Etymologie (de) f
Greek: ετυμολογία (el) f ( etymología )
Ancient: ἐτυμολογία f ( etumología )
Hebrew: אֵטִימוֹלוֹגְיָה (he) f ( etimológya )
Hindi: व्युत्पत्ति f ( vyutpatti ) , व्युत्पत्तिशास्त्र m ( vyutpattiśāstra )
Hungarian: etimológia (hu) , szófejtés (hu) , szótörténet (hu)
Icelandic: orðsifjafræði (is) f
Ido: etimologio (io)
Indonesian: etimologi (id)
Interlingua: etymologia (ia)
Irish: sanasaíocht f
Italian: etimologia (it) f
Japanese: 語源学 (ja) ( ごげんがく, gogengaku )
Kannada: ಪದದ ಹಿನ್ನೆಲೆ (kn) ( padada hinnele )
Kazakh: этимология ( étimologiä )
Khmer: និរុត្តិសាស្ត្រ ( niruttesaah )
Korean: 어원학(語源學) (ko) ( eowonhak ) , 어원(語源) (ko) ( eowon )
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: bêjenasî (ku) f
Kyrgyz: этимология (ky) ( etimologiya )
Latin: etymologia f
Latvian: etimoloģija (lv) f
Lithuanian: etimologija (lt)
Luxembourgish: Etymologie pl
Macedonian: етимоло́гија f ( etimológija )
Malay: etimologi (ms)
Malayalam: നിരുക്തം (ml) ( niruktaṁ )
Maltese: etimoloġija (mt) f
Marathi: व्युत्पत्तीशास्त्र n ( vyutpattīśāstra )
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: үгийн гаралзүй ( ügiin garalzüj ) , этимологи ( etimologi )
Mongolian: ᠦᠭᠡ ᠵᠢᠨ ᠭᠠᠷᠤᠯ ᠵᠦᠢ ( üge-ǰin ɣarul ǰüi ) , ᠡᠲ᠋ᠢᠮᠣᠯᠣᠭᠢ ( etimologi )
Navajo: bizhiʼígíí
Norwegian:
Bokmål: etymologi (no) m
Nynorsk: etymologi m
Occitan: etimologia (oc) f
Pashto: اشتقاق پوهنه f ( ešteqãqpohǝ́na ) , فقه اللغت f ( fiqolluǧát ) , ګړيستنه f ( gǝṛyastǝ́na )
Persian:
Iranian Persian: ریشِهشِناسی (fa) ( riše-šenâsi ) , واژِهپَژوهی ( vâže-pažuhi ) , عِلْمِ اِشْتِقاق ( elm-e ešteğâğ ) , اِتیمولوژی (fa) ( etimoloži )
Polish: etymologia (pl) f , źródłosłów (pl)
Portuguese: etimologia (pt) f
Romanian: etimologie (ro) f
Russian: этимоло́гия (ru) f ( etimológija )
Sanskrit: व्युत्पत्ति (sa) f ( vyutpatti )
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: етимоло̀гија f
Roman: etimològija (sh) f
Sicilian: etimoluggìa (scn) f
Sinhalese: නිරුක්ති විද්යාව ( nirukti widyāwa )
Slovak: etymológia (sk) f
Slovene: etimologija (sl) f
Spanish: etimología (es) f
Swahili: etimolojia
Swedish: etymologi (sv) c
Tagalog: palamuhatan , panuysuyan , etimolohiya (tl)
Tajik: этимология (tg) ( etimologiya ) , решашиносӣ ( rešašinosi )
Tamil: சொற்பிறப்பியல் (ta) ( coṟpiṟappiyal )
Telugu: వ్యుత్పత్తి (te) ( vyutpatti )
Thai: ศัพทมูลวิทยา ( sàp-tá-muun-wít-tá-yaa )
Tigrinya: ፍልቀተ-ቃል ( fəlḳätä-ḳal )
Turkish: köken bilimi (tr) , etimoloji (tr)
Turkmen: etimologiýa
Ukrainian: етимоло́гія (uk) f ( etymolóhija )
Urdu: اِشْتِقاقِیات f pl ( iśtiqāqiyāt ) , صَرْف m ( sarf )
Uyghur: ئېتمولوگىيە ( ëtmologiye ) , ئېتىمولوگىيە ( ëtimologiye )
Uzbek: etimologiya (uz)
Vietnamese: từ nguyên học (vi) (詞源學 ), từ nguyên (vi) (詞源 )
Volapük: tümolog (vo)
Welsh: geirdarddiad (cy) m , geirdarddeg f
Yiddish: עטימאָלאָגיע (yi) f ( etimologye )
Yoruba: ìmọ̀ orírun-ọ̀rọ̀ , ẹ̀kọ́ orírun-ọ̀rọ̀
account of the origin and historical development of a word
Arabic: إِشْتِقَاق m ( ʔištiqāq ) , تَأْثِيل m ( taʔṯīl )
Armenian: ստուգաբանություն (hy) ( stugabanutʻyun )
Belarusian: этымало́гія f ( etymalóhija ) , этымалёгія f ( etymaljóhija ) ( Taraškievica )
Breton: etimologiezh f
Bulgarian: етимоло́гия (bg) f ( etimológija )
Burmese: ဗျုပ္ပတ် (my) ( byuppat )
Carpathian Rusyn: етимоло́ґия f ( etymológyja )
Catalan: etimologia (ca) f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 詞源 / 词源 (zh) ( cíyuán ) , 語源 / 语源 (zh) ( yǔyuán ) , 字源 (zh) ( zìyuán ) , 詞根 / 词根 (zh) ( cígēn )
Corsican: etimulugia (co) f
Czech: etymologie (cs) f
Danish: etymologi (da) c
Dutch: etymologie (nl) f
Esperanto: etimo , vortodeveno
Estonian: etümoloogia (et)
Finnish: etymologia (fi)
French: étymologie (fr) f
Galician: etimoloxía (gl) f
Georgian: ეტიმოლოგია (ka) ( eṭimologia )
German: Etymologie (de) f , Herkunft (de) f , Wortherkunft (de) f
Greek: ετυμολογία (el) f ( etymología )
Ancient: ἐτυμολογία f ( etumología )
Hebrew: גיזרון \ גִּזָּרוֹן (he) m ( gizarón )
Hungarian: etimológia (hu) , szófejtés (hu) , származás (hu) , eredet (hu) , szóeredet , eredeztetés
Icelandic: orðsifjar f pl
Irish: sanasaíocht f
Italian: etimologia (it) f
Japanese: 語源 (ja) ( ごげん, gogen )
Khmer: មូលសព្ទ ( muullaʼsap ) , ដើមកំណើតពាក្យ ( daəm kɑmnaət piək )
Korean: 어원(語源) (ko) ( eowon )
Latin: etymologia f
Latvian: etimoloģija (lv) f
Luxembourgish: Etymologie n
Macedonian: етимологија f ( etimologija )
Malayalam: പദോൽപ്പത്തി (ml) ( padōlppatti )
Manx: bun-ocklaght f
Maori: mātai kupu
Marathi: व्युत्पत्ती f ( vyutpattī )
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: үгийн гарал ( ügiin garal )
Mongolian: ᠦᠭᠡ ᠵᠢᠨ ᠭᠠᠷᠤᠯ ( üge-ǰin ɣarul )
Norwegian:
Bokmål: etymologi (no) m
Nynorsk: etymologi m
Occitan: etimologia (oc) f
Old English: namena ordfruma m
Pashto: اشتقاق (ps) m ( ešteqãq )
Persian:
Iranian Persian: ریشِهشِناسی (fa) ( riše-šenâsi ) , واژِهپَژوهی ( vâže-pažuhi ) , عِلْمِ اِشْتِقاق ( elm-e ešteğâğ ) , اِتیمولوژی (fa) ( etimoloži ) , اِشْتِقاق (fa) ( ešteğâğ )
Polish: etymologia (pl) f , źródłosłów (pl) m inan
Portuguese: etimologia (pt) f
Romanian: etimologie (ro) f
Russian: этимоло́гия (ru) f ( etimológija )
Sanskrit: व्युत्तपत्ति f ( vyuttapatti )
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: етимоло̀гија f
Roman: etimològija (sh) f }}
Slovak: etymológia (sk) f
Slovene: etimologija (sl) f
Spanish: etimología (es) f
Swedish: etymologi (sv) c
Tagalog: etimolohiya (tl)
Tajik: иштиқоқ ( ištiqoq ) , этимология (tg) ( etimologiya ) , решашиносӣ ( rešašinosi )
Tamil: சொற்பிறப்பியல் (ta) ( coṟpiṟappiyal )
Thai: ศัพทมูล ( sàp-tá-muun ) , รากศัพท์ (th) ( râak-sàp )
Turkish: köken bilimi (tr) , etimoloji (tr) , köken bilgisi
Ukrainian: етимоло́гія (uk) f ( etymolóhija )
Urdu: اِشْتِقاق (ur) m ( iśtiqāq )
Uyghur: ئېتىمولوگىيە ( ëtimologiye )
Venetian: etimoƚoxìa (vec) f
Vietnamese: từ nguyên (vi) (詞源 )
Welsh: tarddiad (cy) m
Wolof: gongikubaat (wo)
Yoruba: orírun-ọ̀rọ̀
Translations to be checked
“etymology”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language , 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin , 2000 , →ISBN .
“etymology ”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged , Dictionary.com, LLC , 1995–present.
"etymology " in WordNet 2.0 , Princeton University, 2003.