Post on 05-Jan-2016
description
Etymology
What is it???
• Someone invented every word we know.
• Etymology is the study of a word’s history or origin.
In a dictionary entry, the etymology usually appears just
before the definitions.
If you look up the word corral in a dictionary the etymology that follows looks like this:
[SP< corro, a circle, ring<L currus, cart< currere, to run]
[SP< corro, a circle, ring<L currus, cart< currere, to run]
• This means that corral comes from a Spanish word, corro, meaning “a circle or ring.”
• The Spanish word came from a Latin word, currus, meaning “cart,” which in turn comes from the Latin word currere, meaning “to run.”
• SP = Abbreviation for Spanish• < = “comes from”
How do I make sense of all of the information?
Dictionaries often have a guide in the beginning that explains all language abbreviations and other symbols.
Be careful, though - Not all dictionaries symbols are the same.
Other examples:
The Ancient Greek word hippos means horse, and the word potamus means river. Hence hippopotamus literally means river horse.
Weird, huh???
Oxford English DictionaryOED
• Created in 1857 because an extensive dictionary of the English language did not exist.
• The dictionary traces every word back to its first appearance in the English language.
• The history of some words are gathered from hundreds of years of literature.
More OED fun facts
• This dictionary is constantly revised.
• New words are considered by the OED and some are added to our language each year.
• Recently the OED selected to add the words celebutante, crunk, and hoodie.
• The OED provides extensive etymologies for every word in the English language.
WOW!