An etymological dictionary discusses the etymology of the words listed. Often, large dictionaries, such as the OED and Webster's, will contain some etymological information, without aspiring to focus on etymology. Etymology is the study of the origins of words. ... The Oxford English Dictionary print set The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), and is generally regarded as the most comprehensive and scholarly dictionary of the English language. ... 1888 advertisement for Websters Dictionary Websters Dictionary is a common title given to English language dictionaries in the United States, deriving its name from American lexicographer Noah Webster. ...

Although useful tools, etymological dictionaries must be used with some caution, as research in historical linguistics often renders the etymologies listed in such dictionaries suspect or obsolete. Moreover, some etymologies are controversial, so the editor of an etymological dictionary must decide how much space to devote to covering all theories of a certain word's origin. Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time. ... Editing is the process of preparing language, images, or sound for presentation through correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications. ...

Notable examples

• English language
  • Hoad, T.F., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford, Oxford University Press (1986).
  • Eric Partridge, Origins: A short etymological dictionary of Modern English. New York: Greenwich House (1958, 1959, 1961, 1966).
• German language
  • Friedrich Kluge, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter (first edn. 1883, 21st edn. 1975).
• Polish language
  • Aleksander Brückner, Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego, first edition, Kraków, Krakowska Spółka Wydawnicza, 1927 (9th edition, Warsaw, Wiedza Powszechna, 2000). Tiny Blair
• Russian language (valuable for all Slavic languages)
  • Max Vasmer, Etymological dictionary of the Russian language, Heidelberg (1962), 4 volumes, available online.
• Ancient Greek
  • Hjalmar Frisk, Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg (1960, 1970). [1]
• Proto-Indo-European language
  • Carl Darling Buck, A dictionary of selected synonyms in the principal Indo-European languages, University of Chicago Press, 1949 (paperback edition 1988).
  • Julius Pokorny, Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959).
• Indo-Aryan languages
  • Manfred Mayrhofer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen (1986-2001)
• Old Irish
  • Joseph Vendryes, Lexique étymologique de l'irlandais ancien (first volume 1959; still incomplete), Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and CNRC Éditions, Paris.
• Scottish Gaelic
  • Alexander MacBain, Etymological Dictionary of Scottish-Gaelic (1896), reprinted (1998) by Hippocrene Books (New York).
• Scottish Language
  • John Jamieson, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1808), revised 1879-97
• Finnish
  • Suomen sanojen alkuperä — The Origin of Finnish Words (first volume, A—K 1992; second volume, L—P 1995; third volume, R—Ö 2000), Helsinki, Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus and Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.
• Spanish
  • Guido Gómez de Silva "Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española" (ISBN 968-16-2812-8)

bye bye The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ... Oxford University Press (OUP) is a highly-respected publishing house and a department of the University of Oxford in England. ... Eric Honeywood Partridge (February 6, 1894-June 1, 1979) was a noted lexicographer of the English language, and particularly of its slang. ... Nickname: Big Apple Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ... Friedrich Kluge (21 June 1856 - 21 May 1926) is known for the Kluge etymological dictionary of the German language (Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache), which was first published in 1883. ... Berlin is the capital city and a state of Germany. ... Polish (jÄ™zyk polski, polszczyzna) is the official language of Poland. ... Aleksander Brückner (1856 - 1939) was a Polish Slavic scholar, philologist, lexicographer and historian of literature. ... Tomb of Kazimierz the Great St. ... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Warsaw (Polish: , (?), in full The Capital City of Warsaw, Polish: Miasto StoÅ‚eczne Warszawa) is the capital of Poland and its largest city. ... Russian (Russian: русский язык, russkiy yazyk, ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavic languages. ...  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup... Max Vasmer (1886 – 1962), German linguist. ... Heidelberg is a scenic city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, halfway between Stuttgart and Frankfurt. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Hjalmar Frisk (1900 - 1984) was a Swedish linguist in Indo-European studies and rector of Göteborg University 1951-1966. ... Heidelberg is a scenic city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, halfway between Stuttgart and Frankfurt. ... The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, believed to have been spoken around 4000 BC in Central Asia (according to the Kurgan hypothesis) or millennia before that in Anatolia (according to the Anatolian hypothesis). ... Carl Darling Buck (October 2, 1866 _ 1955), American philologist, was born at Bucksport, Maine. ... The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. ... Julius Pokorny (1887–1970) was born in Prague and studied at Vienna university. ... The Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (The Indo-European Etymological Dictionary) by the Jewish-Czech scholar and Irish nationalist Julius Pokorny was published in 1959. ... The Indo-Aryan languages form a subgroup of the Indo-Iranian languages, thus belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. ... Manfred Mayrhofer (born 26 September 1926 in Linz, Austria) is an Indo-Europeanist specialized on Indo-Iranian languages. ... Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Irish language which can be, more or less, fully reconstructed from extant sources. ... Joseph Vendryes (1875-1960) was a French linguist. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 53. ... Part of the Paris area skyline with from left to right: Montparnasse Tower, Eiffel Tower, and La Défense. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... The Scottish language may refer to: Scots - A series of Germanic dialects used in lowland Scotland. ... Reverend John Jamieson, D.D. (March 3, 1759 - July 12, 1838), Scottish lexicographer, son of a minister, was born in Glasgow. ... Founded 1550 Province Southern Finland Region Uusimaa Sub-region Helsinki Area[1] - Of which land - Rank 185. ... The Research Institute for the Languages of Finland (Finnish: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus, Swedish: Forskningscentralen för de inhemska sprÃ¥ken, Northern Sami: Ruovttueatnan gielaid dutkanguovddáš) is a governmental linguistic research institute of Finland geared at studies of Finnish, Swedish, the Sami languages, Romany language, and the Finnish Sign Language. ... The Finnish Literature Society (Finnish: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura or SKS) was founded in 1831 to promote literature written in Finnish. ...

External links

• http://etymonline.com the Online Etymology Dictionary
• a bibliography
• etymological databases at Leiden University

This linguistics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.