etymologi

Etymologi is the study of the origin of words and how their form and meaning have changed over time. It seeks to uncover where a word came from, its earliest recorded uses, and its connections to related words in other languages. Etymology is a component of historical linguistics and differs from semantics, which studies meaning, and from word formation, which deals with how new words are built.

Methods include careful analysis of ancient texts, the comparison of related languages to reconstruct older stages of speech, and the study of sound changes. Etymologists distinguish between cognates, loanwords, and folk etymologies—popular explanations that may be incorrect. The field relies on evidence from phonology, morphology, and historical documents to propose credible histories for words.

Key processes observed in etymology include regular sound changes, semantic shift, metaphor, metonymy, back-formation, and affixation. Words can migrate between languages through contact, or be reinterpreted due to misanalyses of their parts.

Applications include the etymology sections of dictionaries and lexicons, which aid linguistic research, education, and understanding cultural contacts, trade routes, and migrations. Etymology helps shed light on how societies interacted and how languages influenced one another.

Examples: the English word kindergarten is borrowed from German; sugar traces to Arabic via several intermediate languages; many scientific terms derive from Latin or Greek roots.