etymology
noun
the derivation of a word.
etymologist
-
a word derived from
etymology.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As the etymologist Anatoly Liberman has pointed out, in its earliest forms, haga, hegg and hegge, the word meant “enclosure” or “yard,” especially the residence of a feudal lord.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
In 1934, Allen Walker Read, an etymologist and lexicographer, laid out the history of the word that, then, had “the deepest stigma of any in the language.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 30, 2021
John Kelly, an etymologist and senior research editor at Dictionary.com, wrote in a 2017 post on his etymology website, Mashed Radish.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 18, 2019
“I make it sound very scholarly,” says Merriam etymologist Jim Rader, a onetime Slavic linguistics graduate student who writes the historical notes.
From Slate ● Jan. 12, 2015
The great work of the learned etymologist John Horne Tooke, consists of two octavo volumes, entitled, "EPEA PTEROENTA, or the Diversions of Purley."
From The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown
