Etymology

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Etymology

• Ned Lowe
• ned.lowe_at_imperial.ac.uk

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What is it?

• The origin and development of a words form and
  its meaning an account of this.
• The study of the origin of words.
• The Oxford Popular English Dictionary

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Basic Principles

• English has taken on words from many languages
• Greek
• Latin
• French
• German
• Words are made up from roots, prefixes and
  suffixes
• By analysing these, the meaning of a word often
  becomes apparent

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Simple Examples

• Psychology
• Latin - Psyche Spirit or soul
• Ology Study (Greek logos word,reason)
• Astrology
• Greek Astron - Star
• Etymology
• Greek - Etumon True sense of a word
• Arachnophobia
• Arachn(id) Spider
• Phobia fear
• Triskaidekaphobia
• Fear of the number 13

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Whats in a name?

• Edward
• ead Old English - rich, blessed
• weard Old English guard (think ward)
• Lowe
• Loewe German lion

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Remembering your numbers

• Million, Billion, Trillion, what next?
• Not everyone agrees what each term means!
• The order is the same
• Million, Bi-(m)illion, Tri-(m)illion
• Quadrillion
• Quintillion, Sextillion, SeptillionCentillion
• Zillion means an arbitrarily large number
• Googol (compare google) is 10100

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Interesting Words

• Addict
• Roman soldiers were rewarded addicts (slaves)
  for performance in battle.
• Assassin
• Old Arabic word hashshshin someone who is
  addicted to hash. Group of Persian warriors.
• Heresy
• Ancient Greek Choice .
• Trivia
• Latin for crossroads tri via
  information would be posted on the intersection
  of roads in Rome.
• Russian Tzar/Czar , German Kaiser
• Caesar
• Woman
• Old English Wyfmon meaning wife.

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Chinese etymology

• Often more obvious than English
• Fire
• Mountain
• Volcano!

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• Any questions?
• Questions
• Old French A legal enquiry
• Latin - quaesti to ask, to seek
• Compare
• Quest
• Request
• Quiz
• Inquisitive