etymology
Other forms: etymologies
Since you're reading this, then you probably have some interest in etymology, because it's the study of the history and derivations of words.
What genealogy is to a family, etymology is to words. A genealogist studies the history of a family. A person who studies etymology does the same thing with words. Etymology looks at the roots of words — for example, whether they started out as Latin, Greek, or as some other language — and how they took on their current meaning. When you learn that the -logy part of etymology almost always means "the study of," that is, in itself, etymology.
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a history of a wordtypes:folk etymologya popular but erroneous etymology
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the study of the sources and development of wordstypes:lexicostatisticsa statistical technique used in glottochronology; used to estimate how long ago different languages evolved from a common source languagetype of:linguisticsthe scientific study of language
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entomology / etymology
Vocabulary lists containing etymology
Derived from the Greek suffix -logia, the suffix -ology in English means "the science of or the study of."
You already know that dictionaries contain oodles of words that describe everything in the universe. But do you ever think about the words related to dictionaries, the meanings, and parts that make up the words and the definitions? Here are some of the terms used by dictionary writers and dictionary readers, like you!