Etymology Word facts

While investigating facts about Etymology Words List and Etymology Words, I found out little known, but curios details like:

In the word "helicopter", "-copter" is not the suffix. The etymology is Greek, where "helico-" comes from "helix"(spiral), and "-pter" from "pteron"(wing)

how to teach etymology of words?

The etymology of the word "clue" is from a Greek myth, when Theseus enters the Labyrinth to kill the Minotaur (a half-man, half-bull). He unraveled a "clew" -a ball of string- behind him, so he could find his way out of the labyrinth. "Clew" was mispelled overtime, but kept its symbolic meaning.

What is the etymology of a word?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what is the etymology of the word engineer. Here are 50 of the best facts about Etymology Word Whizzle and Etymology Word Origin I managed to collect.

what does the etymology of a word or phrase include?

The etymology of the worlds most recognizable word, "okay / OK", comes from a fad in the 1830s where people purposely misspelt "all correct" as "oll korrect".
JRR Tolkien's first civilian job was at the Oxford English Dictionary, where he worked mainly on the history and etymology of words of Germanic origin beginning with the letter W.
A survey of ~80,000 words estimated the origin of English words to be 28.3% French, 28.24% Latin, 25% Germanic, 5.32% Greek, 4.04% No etymology given, 3.28% Proper names, all other languages < 1%.
Barf, dildo, faggot, raunchy, snitch, twat and twerp are some of the fewer than 100 words in English with near mysterious origins. Source and more such etymologically mysterious words in comments.
The Etymological Fallacy - where a person 'holds that the present-day meaning of a word or phrase should necessarily be similar to its historical meaning.'
The word "utopia," coined by Sir Thomas More in the sixteenth century, has an etymological meaning of "no-place." It is commonly confused (often intentionally) with the homophone "eutopia," meaning "good place."
Copacetic is a word meaning 'completely satisfactory' This mysterious word first appeared in a 1919 Lincoln biography: "Now there’s the kind of a man! Stout as a buffalo an’ as to looks I’d call him, as ye might say, real copasetic." Its unknown origin provokes endless etymological speculation
About Jean-Pierre Brisset, a turn-of-the-century French eccentric who was obsessed with swimming, and achieved notoriety for his "theory" that humans evolved from frogs, offering only frog-centric alternative etymologies for French words as proof
The etymological origin of the word 'job' is unknown
The 'etymological fallacy' makes people assume that a word means exactly what the etymology would have you think (like decimate)

etymology word facts — What is the etymology of the word communication?

Why is it important to know the etymology of words?

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The etymology of Iran comes from the word "Aryan"

In the 16th century, bully was actually synonymous with lover. If a feudal lord or town squire in the 1500s spoke of his “bully,” he was referring to his sweetheart, a definition that applied to both sexes and traces its etymological roots to the Dutch word boel, or “lover.” - source

Some scholars believe the words "jazz" and "jizz" have shared etymological roots. - source

The etymology of the word "modem" is a combination of the words "modulator" and "demodulator".

The word 'Bunkum’ was born in 1820, when a US politician and representative for Buncombe County, North Carolina, stood up and delivered a rambling, inconsequential speech that contributed nothing to the debate. This, in turn, is the etymology of the verb debunk. - source

Etymology of the word when?

There are many proposed etymologies of the word OK, however the true origin remains a mystery.

How to find the etymology of a word?

No one knows the etymology of the word "condom"; theories include Latin words condon (receptacle), condamina (house), and cumdum (scabbard or case).

The words emoji and emoticon, despite sharing a similar meaning and appearance, have no etymological relation. Emoji comes from a japanese term meaning 'picture letter,' while emoticon is a portmanteau of emotion and icon.

The etymology of the word "Pissant" legitimately comes from a species of European wood ant that smells like urine

The word "dord" was created accidentally in 1937 when a dictionary editor meant to put "d or d" in the dictionary, but was mistaken for a single word. It's word status got revoked in 1947 when an editor noticed the word lacked an etymology.

The Myth of Amazon women's practice of removing their left breast so as to be better archers may have more to do with the word "amazons" etymology as from a-(ἀ-) "without "and mazos (μαζός), "breast"

Interesting facts about etymology word

The the etymology of the word Helicopter does not come from 'heli' and 'copter', but from 'helico' (from the greek 'helix' for spiral), and 'pter' ('pteron' greek for wing, as in pterodactyl).

The etymology of the word 'tragedy' is from the Greek meaning 'goat song'. Apparently there was a goat festival and the plays surrounding that time were named for it.

One etymological meaning for the word "Amazon" is "breastless woman," because according to Greek legend, the Amazons would cut off their right breasts so as to fire a bow more easily.

The words 'isle' and 'island' have completely different origins. 'Island' was originally spelled without an S - it was changed in the 15th century due to mistaken ideas about its etymology.

The word "till" is the etymological forefather of the compound word "until", which is derived from the Old Norse word "und", meaning "up to". This makes the shortened form "'til" technically incorrect.

How to write the etymology of a word?

The word "tattoo" has two meanings in English and two completely different etymologies; one is a loanword from the Polynesian "tatau," and the other is a type of military performance derived from the Dutch phrase "doe den tap toe" meaning "turn off the tap."

Much like etymology, the study of the history of words, there is onomastics: the study of the history of names

The names of 5 of the largest European rivers (Danube [#2], Dnieper [#4],Don [#5], Dniester [#11] and Donets [#14]) all (partly) share the same etymological root: the 'Don' part comes from the Scythian word 'Dānu', which just means 'river'.

The word 'Barbarian' has etymology in Greece where Ancient Greeks thought that foreigners made an onomatopoeia noise sounding like 'bar-bar-bar'.

The complex etymology of the word "Jamboree"; from its roots as a Swahili greeting, to being used to describe a rowdy, boisterous crowd to its present day meaning - "Boy Scouts gatherings"

The "Close Stool." A portable toilet in the shape of a chair which predated the flush toilet. It is believed to be linked to the etymology of the word "stool," slang for human feces.

The word "niggardly"; and that, despite its spelling, it has no racist meaning or etymological connection to the offensive slur it resembles.

Toyota's models the Camry and Corolla, and some others are model names that are derived from terms that reference the crown, and that some of them are interpretations of a Japanese word for crown, and others have other etymologies.

In old English the word 'man' and 'men' referred to both men and women, so words like 'werman' or 'wermen' (like werewolf) would be more etymologically applicable to male humans if we were to use words more similar in syntax to 'woman' and 'women'

The words "isle" and "island" are not etymologically related. One comes from Latin and the other from Old English.

I learned that the word "coonass" is of Cajun origins, and that they've put forth several folk etymologies just to prove it.

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Etymology Word. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is Etymology Word so important!