Etymological dictionary Totally Explained

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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. Etymological dictionaries are the product of research in historical linguistics. For a large number of words in any language, the etymology will be uncertain, disputed, or simply unknown. In such cases, depending on the space available, an etymological dictionary will present various suggestions and perhaps make a judgement on their likelyhood, and provide references to a full discussion in specialist literature.
The tradition of compiling "derivations" of words is pre-modern, found for example in Indian (nirukta), Arabic (al-ištiqāq) and also in Western tradition (in works such as the Etymologicum Magnum). Etymological dictionaries in the modern sense, however, appear only in the late 18th century (with 17th century predecessors such as Vossius' 1662 Etymologicum linguae Latinae or Stephen Skinner's 1671 Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae), with the understanding of sound laws and language change and their production was an important task of the "golden age of philology" in the 19th century.

Notable examples

English language
- Hoad, T.F., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford, Oxford University Press (1986).
- * George William Lemon the English etymologist and author of A derivative dictionary of the English language: in two alphabets, tracing the etymology of those English words, that are derived I. From the Greek, and Latin languages; II. From the Saxon, and other Northern tongues. London, Printed for G. Robinson (1783).
- 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).
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). (External Link)
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).

Dravidian languages (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Brahui et al.)

Burrow and Emeneau, A Dravidian etymological dictionary (Known as the DED or DEDR (1984)

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)

Portuguese

Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa has much etymological information.

Turkish

Sevan Nişanyan "Sözlerin Soyağacı - Çağdaş Türkçe'nin Etimolojik Sözlüğü" (Third ed. Adam Y. Istanbul 2007) Online

Online etymological dictionaries

See: EtymologyFurther Information

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