n.: Some early etymological scholars come up with derivations that were hard for the public to believe. The term "etymology" was formed from the Latin "etus" ("eaten"), the root "mal" ("bad"), and "logy" ("study of"). It meant "the study of things that are hard to swallow." [Mike Kellen
(n) the study of the meanings of words according to their origin
The study of the origin of words.
The origin and historical development of a word; its derivation.
The study of origin and history of words.
The facts relating to the formation or derivation of a word.
the study of the sources and development of words
an account of the history of the word or element of a word
a text explaining how a word came into being
The history of a word's diachronic developments in form and meaning.
The historically verifiable sources of the formation of a word and the development of its meaning.
the origin of a source word
The study of word origins and word histories.
The origins of a word, phrase or clause and its meaning
The origin or history of words
The origin and historical development of a linguistic form as shown by determining its basic elements, earliest known use, and changes in form and meaning, tracing its transmission from one language to another, identifying its cognates in other languages, and reconstructing its ancestral form where possible.
historical origin of word
the study of the history and development of the structures and meanings of words; derivation.
The history of a word shown by tracing its development from another language.
The history of words; the study of the history of words.
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.