Etymology: The Study of Words

The origin of words is one of the most fascinating studies in the liberal arts curriculum. Many English words have a long and checkered history in which they were derived from words in other languages or arose out of unusual circumstances. The word "buckaroo," for example, comes from the Spanish word for "cowboy," vaquero, which has a Latin root word of vacca, meaning "cow" (Casselman, 2007). Vaquero, spoken with the Spanish pronunciation that turns v's into b's, sounds very much like "buckaroo."

The study of word origins is etymology, which is a "branch of linguistics that investigates the history, development, and origin of words" (Columbia Encyclopedia, n.d.). Etymology reveals that words have not been static throughout time, but that their meaning has arisen, changed, and adapted according to the society in which they occur and its associated history. In the study of etymology are myriad interesting word origins and stories that describe how various words came into being and what words in other languages they were originally derived from. "Photograph," for example, comes from the Greek word "photon," meaning "light," and the word "graphos," meaning "write;" it literally means to write with light.

The study of etymology occurs at all levels in our educational system. Elementary schools such as the Elvin Hill Elementary School in Shelby County, Alabama teach etymology. Elvin Hill gives students the opportunity to explore the etymology and hi

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t of the Box," which is taught by librarian Lynn Thitchener and shows students how to research the etymology of words in the Oxford English Dictionary Online and Oxford Reference Online (Cornell University Library, 2007). The University of North Carolina Online offers a course in "Word Formation and Etymology," which it describes as the ""Systematic study of the formation of words from Greek or Latin to build vocabulary and recognition" (University of North Carolina Online, 2007). Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California teaches "Vocabulary 101-Vocabulary and Etymology," which "emphasizes an understanding of the etymology, definition and usage of words" as well as teaching "specialized terms used in courses across the curriculum" (Rio Hondo College, 2002). At the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts, Anatoly Lieberman teaches etymology and other language-related subjects (Pattison, 2008). Lieberman was born in Leningrad in 1937 under the Stalinist regime and was educated in Soviet schools but immigrated to the United States in 1975 and has taught at the University of Minnesota for more than 31 years, with his teaching comprising 30 different courses (Pattison, 2008). Although not a native English speaker, Lieberman

Category: Literature - E