Etymology studies the origin and evolution of words and languages. It helps understand a language’s history and cultural context. New words come from borrowing, word formation, compounding, and onomatopoeia. Etymology reveals social and political trends and is interesting to many.
Etymology is a branch of linguistics that focuses on the origin of words and the evolution of languages as they are used. Every word in a language has a complex history, and etymology aims to understand that history so that the word can be better understood. Also, looking at the etymology of words within a language helps linguists understand the language as a whole, along with other languages in the same language family.
The term “etymology” first entered the English language in 1398 and is a compound of two Greek words, etymology, which refers to the true sense of something, and logos, or “word”. Early students of etymology became curious about the words that were widely in use and where they came from, so they began looking at the roots and history of their language. In some cases, unfortunately, word scholars have invented folk etymologies for words, which are funny, but false. Because the folk etymology for some words is widespread, the true roots of the words are sometimes obscured.
New words enter a language in several ways. One of the most common is the loan. English, for example, is a language well known for borrowing words from other languages. In fact, much of the English language includes such borrowed words as doppleganger, smorgasboard, pandit, aardvark, and amok. Often, the pronunciation and meaning of a word changes when it is borrowed, and the original users may not recognize it after several decades of adoption.
Another common source of new words is word formation. Word formation involves creating entirely new words, often by combining existing words in the language or by changing the meaning of an established word. In times of accelerated scientific and technical development, a plethora of new words and meanings emerge such as the internet, routers and robots. New words can also be created through compounding, adding prefixes or suffixes to existing words to change their meaning, as is the case with words like glorify, educational, rhapsodize, and the 2006 popular word, truth. In some cases, a new word is formed from sound symbolism, which is also called onomatopoeia. Common examples of onomatopoeia are words like meow, honk, buzz and clank, which illustrate their meaning with the sound they make.
Studying the language is important, because it reveals a lot about the culture where the language is spoken. For example, by understanding whether words were newly formed or borrowed, linguists can determine when various cultures have had contact with each other. Because the meaning of words undergoes subtle transitions, etymology can also illustrate social and political trends. For many etymologists it is also simply interesting.
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