The Hutchinson Dictionary of Word Origins

The Hutchinson Dictionary of Word Origins [eBook]
Published 2006
ISBN: 1859865739
ISBN-13: 9781859865736

Authoritative etymologies of hundreds of English words, including recently coined terms.

One particular development of the new world was an interest in the words themselves. Scholars began to ask the question already asked above: where do words come from? More precisely, what was their original meaning, and how have they evolved? The learned term etymology was coined (from Greek) to describe the study of word origins and meanings. Certain scholars set themselves up as specialists and produced either dictionaries with etymologies or purely etymological dictionaries...

This dictionary contains the origins of words ranging from the familiar and everyday to the more formal and specialized. Where do words come from? Most English words can be traced back to one of two sources, Germanic or Italic. Germanic words, usually regarded as the 'native' ones, often have their counterparts in modern German, as well as related languages such as Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian. Italic words often have their counterparts in modern French, as well as related Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, and share a common ancestor in Latin...