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WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
These are source reports, not reviewed *SET-U ancestry. A list of templates or numbered etymologies is not an ancestor chain. Scholarly disagreements remain in the original source text.
35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL1 source section across 1 headword matching “Et”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
etEnglish (en) · Unnumbered etymologySource text
From Middle English et, from Old English ǣt, from Proto-West Germanic *āt, from Proto-Germanic *ēt. Doublet of ate.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Mayhew–Skeat (1888)
1888; pinned HTML transcription updated October 28, 20240112
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
adjectiveheadword prefix
etymological
Of, relating to, or based on etymology; an Early Modern English adjective whose exact formation is described differently by major historical dictionaries.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounheadword prefix
etymologist
A specialist in etymology; an English agent noun formed on etymology with -ist.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗verbheadword prefix
etymologize
To discover, formulate, state, or study etymologies; an English verb formed from etymology with -ize.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounheadword prefix
etymology
The study of the true or original sense of a word—and of the changes that made it what it is.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounheadword prefix
etymon
A technical English noun for an earlier source form, a foreign donor, or a base used in composition or derivation.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounheadword prefix
étymologie
The French word for the study or historical explanation of word origins, attested in medieval forms long before its modern scientific scope stabilized.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjectiveheadword prefix
étymologique
A French adjective meaning either related to etymology or conforming to a word’s origin, borrowed from Latin etymologicus.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounheadword prefix
étymon
A French linguistic term for an attested or reconstructed form used to explain the historical development of one or more words.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjectiveheadword prefix
ἐτήτυμος
A poetic Ancient Greek adjective meaning true, described by LSJ as a reduplicated formation beside ἔτυμος.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjective · adverbheadword prefix
ἐτεός
A Homeric Greek true-word related to ἔτυμος and ἐτήτυμος, with a proposed prehistory in *set-eu-o- and *set-u-.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjective · later substantivized neuterheadword prefix
ἔτυμος
An Ancient Greek adjective meaning true, real, or actual; its neuter later supplied a technical noun for a word’s true sense according to its origin.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noun combining formhistorical form
-logy
A bound English word element used in formations involving discourse or expression and in names of doctrines, theories, sciences, and fields of study.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗0212
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
Old French / Indo-European
ethimologie
derivation of a word
- DATE
- 14th c.
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 3
Old French / Indo-European
ethimologie
title reference, word explanation, or learned wordplay depending on the witness
- DATE
- Old French records from c. 1175
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Latin / Indo-European
etymologia
explanation of a word by its origin
- DATE
- antiquity–medieval
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 3
Latin / Indo-European
etymologia
etymology; explanation by origin
- DATE
- Classical Latin–medieval learned Latin
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Present-Day English / Indo-European
etymological
of, relating to, or based on etymology
- DATE
- 1588–today
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Latin / Indo-European
etymologicus
etymological; conforming to etymology
- DATE
- Late Latin grammatical tradition
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 2
Present-Day English / Indo-European
etymologist
a specialist in etymology
- DATE
- 1604–today
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Present-Day English / Indo-European
etymologize
discover, formulate, state, or study etymologies
- DATE
- 1532–today
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Present-Day English / Indo-European
etymology
the history and origin of a word
- DATE
- late 14th c.–today
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 3
Present-Day English / Indo-European
etymon
an earlier source form, foreign donor, or derivational base
- DATE
- 1573–today
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Latin / Indo-European
etymon
the literal or original meaning of a word
- DATE
- Latin scholarly use
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 2
French / Indo-European
étymologie
study or explanation of the origin and historical development of words
- DATE
- Modern French record–today
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
0324
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 12
openprobableword prefix
How was English etymological formed?
Merriam-Webster analyzes etymologic from Latin etymologicus and etymological as etymologic + -al; Etymonline analyzes etymology + -ical.
openprobableword prefix
Does the English record begin in 1588 or the 1590s?
The reports differ slightly: Merriam-Webster gives 1588 and Etymonline gives the 1590s. Neither date proves the word was coined then.
openprobableword prefix
Does the specialist title begin in 1604 or the 1630s?
Merriam-Webster reports 1604; Etymonline reports the 1630s. These are different source horizons, not necessarily irreconcilable claims about the same underlying object.
openproposedword prefix
Is *set-u- certain?
No. It is a serious published reconstruction, but the exact morphology and wider family are analyzed differently by scholars.
openboundaryword prefix
Can the Greek-to-Latin adjective transfer be dated to one event?
Not from the reviewed sources. Merriam-Webster establishes Greek etymologikos behind Latin etymologicus, while CNRTL documents late Latin use in Diomedes; neither identifies one precisely dated borrowing event.
openprobableword prefix
Did French borrow étymon through Latin or directly from Greek?
CNRTL names Latin etymon as the immediate donor; the Académie calls the French word a learned borrowing from Greek. The graph preserves the Latin route as probable, not certain.
openproposedword prefix
Does the reduplicated form make *set-u- certain?
No. ἐτήτυμος is attested, but the *setu-mo- and *set-u- stages beneath ἔτυμος remain reconstructed and disputed.
openproposedword prefix
Does ἐτεός securely prove *set-u-?
It supports the proposal, but the reconstructed preform, ablaut, and suffixation are not directly attested or unanimous.
openspeculativeword prefix
Did Lydian contact cause the loss of initial aspiration?
Gális presents Lydian contact only as a theoretical possibility, not an established cause of Greek psilosis.
openproposedword prefix
Is *setu-mo- the certain ancestor of ἔτυμος?
No. The analysis is serious and published, but the exact morphology and wider *set-u- family remain debated.
resolvedestablishedword prefix
Does etymological mean correct because of a word’s origin?
No. Etymology is a word’s historical development, distinct from its current definition; origin does not legislate present meaning.
resolvedestablishedword prefix
Is -ist part of the ancestry of etymology itself?
No. -ist creates the English person-label etymologist; the base etymology has its own older French, Latin, and Greek ancestry.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 12
RANK 8GRADE Aranked-word prefix
Etymology calls itself the “true account.”
Greek ἔτυμος “true, real” joined -λογία “account or study”; even that truth-word reaches a reconstructed root.
RANK 81GRADE Aranked-word prefix
The etymon is not always the root of the root.
In technical use an etymon may be an earlier form, a foreign loan source, or a derivational word or morpheme—not necessarily the deepest reachable ancestor.
RANK 86GRADE Aranked-word prefix
Origin does not get the last word.
Calling something “etymological” describes its historical analysis; it does not make an obsolete sense more correct than a word’s established current meaning.
RANK 87GRADE Aranked-word prefix
The verb came before the science label.
Etymologize is reported from 1532 or the 1530s, while Etymonline dates etymology in the modern “science of linguistic analysis” sense to the 1640s.
RANK 148GRADE Aranked-word prefix
The ancient-looking title is Early Modern English.
Etymologist is a productive English formation on etymology + -ist, reported from 1604 or the 1630s—not an inherited Greek professional title.
RANK 2GRADE Aranked reveal
Truth began with firmness and fidelity.
Before truth centered factual correspondence, its family named what was firm, faithful, and steadfast.
RANK 3GRADE Aranked reveal
Robot named forced labor before machinery.
The machine word begins in Czech robota: compulsory labor, corvée, or drudgery.
RANK 4GRADE Acontrarian claim
Humility is an earth-and-lowness metaphor.
Latin humus “ground” produced humilis “low,” then humilitās “lowness,” before the moral virtue.
RANK 6GRADE Aranked reveal
Evidence became a thread you could follow.
Old English cliewen was a ball of thread; the labyrinth metaphor turned it into guidance through uncertainty.
RANK 9GRADE Aranked reveal
The most repeated origin story is not the most rigorous answer.
Mapuche ancestry is a serious, evidenced proposal—but current RAE and a historical Spanish argument keep the deeper source genuinely open.
RANK 14GRADE Acontrarian claim
Arithmetic put the “ithm” into algorithm without becoming its ancestor.
Arithmetic carries Greek arithmos “number.” Algorithm carries al-Khwārizmī's name; arithmos influenced its spelling, not its genealogy.
RANK 18GRADE Aranked reveal
The famous Gaulish ending is -rīx, not decorative -ix.
Cambridge identifies Gaulish -rix /-rīxs/ “king” inside Dumnorix and Vercingetorix and derives it from Proto-Celtic *rīx-s. The r belongs to the historical element; the exact force of that element still varies across individual names.
0412
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
research database28 CLAIM LINKS
Etygram: ἐτός / ἔτυμος dossier
Etygram Editors
citation-key prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary15 CLAIM LINKS
Emotion — Origin and history
Douglas Harper / 2026
citation-key prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary10 CLAIM LINKS
Icon — Origin and history
Douglas Harper / 2026
citation-key prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary9 CLAIM LINKS
Etymologize — Online Etymology Dictionary
Douglas Harper / 2026
citation-key prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary8 CLAIM LINKS
Arithmetic — Origin and history
Douglas Harper / 2026
citation-key prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary8 CLAIM LINKS
Dialogue — Origin and history
Douglas Harper / 2026
citation-key prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary8 CLAIM LINKS
Legislation — Origin and history
Douglas Harper / 2026
citation-key prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary8 CLAIM LINKS
Prologue — Origin and history
Douglas Harper / 2026
citation-key prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary7 CLAIM LINKS
Etymologist — Online Etymology Dictionary
Douglas Harper / 2026
citation-key prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary6 CLAIM LINKS
-ist — Online Etymology Dictionary
Douglas Harper / 2026
citation-key prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary6 CLAIM LINKS
Algorism — Origin and history
Douglas Harper / 2026
citation-key prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary5 CLAIM LINKS
-al — Online Etymology Dictionary
Douglas Harper / 2026
citation-key prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗0512
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
John Harris’s Lexicon technicum prints ETYMOLOGY as a headword and defines it as the part of grammar concerned with words’ origins and true signification.
etymology / etymology / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and sciencesattested-form prefix / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus record
CNRTL historical first-attestation report for French ethimologie
ethimologie / étymologie / c. 1175
Étymologie: étymologieattested-form prefix / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexicographic first use
English lexical record
etymology / etymology / late 14th century
Etymology — Word Historyattested-form prefix / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexicographic first use
Merriam-Webster first-known-use report for transitive etymologize
etymologize / etymologize / 1532
Etymologize — Merriam-Webster.com Dictionaryattested-form prefix / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexicographic first use
Merriam-Webster lexicographic first-use report for etymon
etymon / etymon / 1573
Etymon — Definition, Word History, and First Known Useattested-form prefix / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexicographic first use
Merriam-Webster first-known-use report for etymological
etymological / etymological / 1588
Etymological — Merriam-Webster.com Dictionaryattested-form prefix / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexicographic first use
Merriam-Webster first-known-use report for etymologist
etymologist / etymologist / 1604
Etymologist — Merriam-Webster.com Dictionaryattested-form prefix / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Heliand manuscript M, Beatitudes persecution clause
heti / heti / Heliand composition circa 830–840; Munich manuscript second half of the ninth century
Heliand — BSB Cgm 25, scan 41, folio 20r, heti locuswitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
The e-rara object record and searchable scan locate John Harris's dictionary definition of algorithm.
algorithm / algorithm / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and scienceswitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
The PAPER-OFFICE entry in John Harris’s Lexicon technicum includes Letters of Intelligence among official papers communicated to the King’s Council.
intelligence / intelligence / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and scienceswitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
A passage in John Harris’s Lexicon technicum cites a Lecture by Nehemiah Grew about varieties of taste read before the Royal Society.
lecture / lecture / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and sciencesreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
A bibliographic note in John Harris’s Lexicon technicum names December while pointing readers to the December 1682 Acta Eruditorum.
December / December / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and scienceswitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗06
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.