Etymonline Reviews and Details

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Social recommendations and mentions

• What things immediately switch off your interest in a theory?

  If they took two minutes to google the origin of most words and terminology, whether in the OED or good old etymonline.com they might know how etymology actually works. Source: over 2 years ago

• How do you inprove your orthography?

  There are rules for lots of tricky things in English (If you struggle with words with double letters, for instance, look up "double consonants".) Sometimes finding out the history of the word helps me remember it. etymonline.com is great for learning how words came to be. I also recommend r/grammar if you have any questions about English grammar. Source: about 3 years ago

• Vocabulary for stories set in the past

  As for how you know what words you can use, u/SugarFreeHealth gave some great resources. I spend an ungodly amount of time on etymonline.com myself. Source: about 3 years ago

• Mystery of the words 구두 and くつ

  6. "What's the etymology of x?"—try /r/etymology, Etymonline and Wiktionary first. Source: over 3 years ago

• What is the orthodox view of demons?

  Not sure where you're getting the idea it meant "influencer". Granted, I think the Oxford English Dictionary is probably a better etymology dictionary than etymonline.com but that's the free online etymology dictionary. Source: over 3 years ago

• What is the etymology for "witch"?

  If you have access to an academic library (this is usually at, or through, a college or the like), or maybe a regular library if yours has it, look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary (oed.com). This is the #1 legit source for English etymology work. There's also Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), which is free and pretty good but the OED is better if you can get it. Source: over 3 years ago

• Why is this la and not el?

  I love this, thank you. I commonly use http://etymonline.com for English. Source: over 3 years ago

• How, When and Who to Marry

  Etymonline.com is a good place to start. Oxford English Dictionary. Source: over 3 years ago

• Translating day names

  I don't quite get what you mean by "creating a mapping of day-of-the-week names", are you looking for the etymology of the names? If that's what you're looking for, you can check wiktionary, or for english you can check etymonline, which is usually a little bit more complete when it comes to all the dates and meaning changes. Source: over 3 years ago

• Hledám etymologický slovnik češtiny

  Thanks for asking this question. I love etymonline.com and really enjoy understanding the deeper meanings and origins of words. I may end up ordering this book for myself so it can collect dust like all of my others :-/. Source: over 3 years ago

• I asked my LEO friend if he would enforce the brace ban.

  Regarding the "well regulated" verbiage, I've tried to look into that myself. Using etymonline.com to research the etymology, "regulated" seems to have always meant aligning something with a rule; however, "regular" in a military sense means and has meant a particular force is a standing army, i.e. Always formed, never disbanded. I'm not sure if there's a cross over between "regular" and "regulated", but, if there... Source: over 3 years ago

• Is the German word 'Deutsch' (meaning German) etymologically linked to the German word 'Leute' (meaning people)?

  6. "What's the etymology of x?"—try /r/etymology, Etymonline and Wiktionary first. Source: over 3 years ago

• Measurehead was right...

  I will have to check that out! Etymology is fascinating and I have spent hours wandering around etymonline.com on many occasions. According to etymonline, the term was used by alchemists in the 14th century to refer mean "volatile substance; distillate". Considering that the term comes from alchemists, who were the chemists of their time, my bet is that "spirits" is a reference to the way the air distorts when... Source: over 3 years ago

• How do you deal with inventing fictional proper nouns as you write?

  I also like to use the Anglish Wordbook and the Online Etymology Dictionary when coining terms. Source: over 3 years ago

• It would be way better to have the number '12' pronounced "dozenteen".

  "twelve" is a remnant of the old base 12 counting system; "teen" means "one more than" {"thirteen" = "one more than twelve"}. etymonline.com: "from Old English twelf "twelve," literally "two left" (over ten), from Proto-Germanic". Source: over 3 years ago

• Does anyone know the etymology of the verb “to french”?

  According to etymonline.com, french fries came from 1903 and was related to deep-fat frying, a cooking method considered particularly French at the time. Source: over 3 years ago

• Slim Iceberg “Georgia’d”

  6. "What's the etymology of x?"—try /r/etymology, Etymonline and Wiktionary first. Source: over 3 years ago

• Why are sneakers (the shoes) called sneakers? Are there supposed to make little sound while walking hence be good for "sneaking"?

  The Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com) is handy for such questions. Source: over 3 years ago

• If you were operating UPS2844 last night, thanks for the pic (and the laugh)!

  Whatever it was, its disputed by etymonline.com, who assert that turbo- as a prefix to refer to gas turbine engines existed in print in 1904. So I appear to have been wrong. Source: over 3 years ago

• The Soviet Onion

  I will have you know I went to etymonline.com. I don't think it made much of a difference as I took one whole skim of the page then left, but still. Source: over 3 years ago

• Millennials, what confuses you about Gen Z?

  The -s has some rationale for its existence, given "always", "backwards", "towards" which are also adverbs. (etymonline.com claims to cite "anyways" from the 16th century, but doesn't give a source. Google Ngrams doesn't show a rise for "anyway" until the 19th century, but has "anyways" floating upward - in any case, "anyway" has won out to places such as Merriam Webster and Wiktionary which now mark "anyways" as... Source: almost 4 years ago