word-lore

Or word·lore

[wurd-lawr, -lohr]

noun

1. a study of words and derivations.

2. the vocabulary of a particular language and the history of its words.

Word History and Origins

Origin of word-lore¹

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

The widow and Mrs. Fair led the van, the two spinsters were the main body, and Henry and Barbara straggled in the rear stooping side by side among white and blue violets, making perilous ventures for cowslips and maple blossoms, and commercing in sweet word-lore and dainty likes and dislikes.

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Nothing in the modest success of the book has given him so much pleasure as the fact, to which his correspondence bears witness, that his little contribution to word-lore has helped to amuse the convalescence of more than one stricken fighting-man.

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The writer on word-lore must of necessity build on what has already been done, happy if he can add a few bricks to the edifice.

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In word-lore, as in other sciences, it is seldom safe to lay down the law without a little conscientious "hedging."

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Author of ‘The Folk and their Word-lore,’ ‘Folk-Etymology,’ ‘Babylonian Influence on the Bible,’ etc.

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