Words similar to etymology
Example sentences for: etymology
How can you use “etymology” in a sentence? Here are some example sentences to help you improve your vocabulary:
All three were inclined to uninformed etymology or ignorant censure, he alleged.
There is also the learned guess, as in the etymology for groundhog , the Midland name for the eastern woodchuck, which may be a calque from Dutch aertoercken , and archaic variant of aardvarken , literally `earth pig'; or hieronymous , a euphemism for the posterior, which may derive from Greek hieron osteon , the name for the sacrum; or the southern Appalachian expression to come out of the little end of the horn meaning `to be unlucky,' which is probably an allusion to a “reverse” cornucopia.
Returning to etymology, clock in the above paragraph is incorrect in horological usage.
And many of my students in introductory linguistics courses confuse etymology (word origins) with entomology (the study of insects).
Consider that the OED , which makes no pretensions at being exhaustive or complete, occupies some twenty quarto volumes in its description of the lexicon alone; consider that a descriptive bibliography of the huge number of lexicographical works on the myriad aspects of English alone would occupy several similar volumes; consider the multivolume works on English grammar--by Curme, Poutsma, Jespersen, et al.; consider the immense corpus of English literature and of the writings about it; and then consider all the material ancillary to the foregoing: the teaching of English not only to foreign learners but to native speakers as well, the conventions of writing, punctuation, usage, and pronunciation, the multifarious influences of English and on English around the world, the study of style and of literary devices, etymology, etc.
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