Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics

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Etymology
(2,322 words)

Etymology is a linguistic discipline dating from Ancient Greece. Plato, for instance, devoted his dialogue Kratylos to the explanation of various Greek words. The word etumología ‘the analysis of a word so as to find its origin’ was first used at the end of the 1st century B.C.E. by Strabo (784) and Dionysius Halicarnassensis (De compositione verborum 16); the verb étumologeō ‘I analyze a word and find its origin’ is used only by Athenaeus (35C), living in the 2nd/3rd century C.E. The compound consists of the base log- known from the names of various scientific disciplines (lógos ‘word, pr…

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Václav Blažek, “Etymology”, in: Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, Managing Editors Online Edition: Lutz Edzard, Rudolf de Jong. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1570-6699_eall_EALL_COM_vol2_0010>
First published online: 2011
First print edition: ISBN: 9789004177024, 20090831



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