etymology

Now that we’re familiar with this word in practice, let’s take a look at its history. So that we’re clear, the American Heritage Dictionary defines etymology as “the origin and historical development of a linguistic form as shown by determining its basic elements, earliest known use, and changes in form and meaning.” Before taking on its present spelling, the Middle English version of the word was etimologie, passed down from the Old French ethimologie. As one might expect, the Old French word was inherited from Latin. It is important to note that the term can be traced back to the Medieval Latin ethimologia, Medieval Latin being the scholarly language of the Middle Ages. This word was carried down from the Latin etymologia, itself descended from the Greek etumologia, related to etumon, the “true sense of a word.” Note that an 'h' appeared and vanished over time; neither the AHD nor the OED details the cause of this phenomenon. The Greek etumon is the parent of our modern etymon, and comes from the neuter etumos, meaning “true.” It’s exciting and ennobling to think that our etymology class studies truth and true meaning!