etymology

n. study of the origin of words, study of the historical development of words

"Etymologies" redirects here. For the literary works by Isidore of Seville and J. R. R. Tolkien, see Etymologiae and The Etymologies (Tolkien) respectively. Etymology is the study of the history of words  - when they entered a language, from what source, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.
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Noun
1. a history of a word
(hypernym) history, account, chronicle, story
(hyponym) folk etymology
(derivation) etymologize, etymologise
2. the study of the sources and development of words
(hypernym) linguistics
(hyponym) lexicostatistics
(derivation) etymologize, etymologise

(n.)
That part of grammar which relates to the changes in the form of the words in a language; inflection.
  

(n.)
That branch of philological science which treats of the history of words, tracing out their origin, primitive significance, and changes of form and meaning.
  

Synonyms and related words:
bowwow theory, comparative linguistics, derivation, descriptive linguistics, dialectology, dingdong theory, eponymy, folk etymology, glossematics, glossology, glottochronology, glottology, grammar, graphemics, historical linguistics, language study, lexicology, lexicostatistics, linguistic geography, linguistic science, linguistics, mathematical linguistics, morphology, morphophonemics, origin, paleography, philology, phonetics, phonology, psycholinguistics, semantic history, semantics, sociolinguistics, structuralism, syntactics, transformational linguistics, word history