The study of the origin and history of a word. It comes to us through Latin, with the Greek origin of (e´tymon “original form” + logia “study of”). Etymology is, in a way, similar to archeology; since they both depend on existing evidence in order to explain a current form. Each language has its complex history where the origin is broken down and changed through time. For instance, English went through Old, Middle and Modern eras reaching its contemporary form.

1. ETYMOLOGY
Done by
Juman Deraneyya
Rujina Qutait
Batool Alzyoud
Under the guidance of
Dr. Khaleel Al-Bataineh
Department of English Language & Translation

3. What is Etymology?
◦ The study of the origin and history of a word. It comes to us through Latin, with the Greek origin
of (e´tymon “original form” + logia “study of”).
◦ Etymology is, in a way, similar to archeology; since they both depend on existing evidence in
order to explain a current form.
◦ Each language has its complex history where the origin is broken down and
changed through time. For instance, English went through Old, Middle and Modern eras
reaching its contemporary form.

4. Why Etymology?
◦ Why do dictionaries have an etymology section if most dictionaries are addressed to
monolingual audience?
◦ There is no evidence that common readers needed to look for the origin of the words for any
practical reason. They were added mainly to satisfy the readers' curiosity.
◦ The purpose of dictionaries is to record words of a language in its contemporary age.
◦ One of the reasons behind the interest in Etymology in English linguistics is that English is one
of the most versatile languages when it comes to word origins.
◦ Historically speaking, earlier dictionaries were concerned with loanwords, only adding words
with foreign origins, which is how hard words dictionaries appeared.

6. Etymology in Dictionaries.
◦ Etymology became a conventionally essential part of word entries in dictionaries, where they
are added in square brackets as the final item in the entry.
◦ Learners and children's dictionaries usually don't have an etymology section.
◦ An example of an etymology dictionary is "Weekley 1967 - An Etymological Dictionary of
Modern English".
◦ The basic criterion that dictionaries use to identify homographs is etymology: if two or more
different origins can be identified for the same spelling, then the orthographic word is entered as
many times as there are different etymologies.
◦ In the process of making a dictionary, an etymology specialist (consultant) is always required.

7. THANK YOU!