Monday, February 25, 2008

Etymology

I suppose a blog on etymology should take a look at that word. It clearly has some roots in it, but what are they?

Looks like it comes from the Greek etymológos, which has essentially the same meaning. In this word there are two roots: étymo (true, actual, real) and lógos (which means "reason" as in logic but also "word" as in dialogue).

I've never heard of this étymo root before. Turns out it shows up as a modern English word, etymon (a pretty word), which dictionary.com defines as "the linguistic form from which another form is historically derived." It gives as an example the Latin root "cor" (meaning heart) which is the etymon of the modern English cordial or accord. A useful word for the writer of an etymology blog to know.

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