Sunday 11 February 2007

Online Etymology Dictionary

Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant 600 or 2,000 years ago. Think of it like looking at pictures of your friends' parents when they were your age. People will continue to use words as they will, finding new or wider meanings for old words and coining new ones to fit new situations.

The dates beside a word indicate the earliest year for which there is a surviving written record of that word. This should be taken as approximate, especially before about 1700, since a word may have been used in conversation for hundreds of years before it turns up in a manuscript that has had the good fortune to survive the centuries.

Online Etymology Dictionary.

1 comment(s):

eedetik said...

Tarikh-tarikh di sebelah perkataan menunjukkan tahun terawal yang mana terdapat catatan bertulis dari perkataan tersebut. Ini perlu diambil kira sebagai kira-kira, terutamanya sebelum sekitar 1700, kerana perkataan mungkin telah digunakan dalam perbualan selama beratus-ratus tahun sebelum ia muncul dalam naskah yang situs prediksi bola mempunyai nasib baik untuk bertahan berabad-abad.