Etymology

1. Etymology

2. What is it??? • Someone invented every word we know. • Etymology is the study of a word’s history or origin.

3. 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]

4. [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”

5. 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.

6. Other examples: The Ancient Greek word hippos means horse, and the word potamusmeans river. Hence hippopotamus literally means river horse. Weird, huh???

7. 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.

8. 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!