Exploratorium Magazine Online: The Evolution of Language
Volume 23, Number 1
Become A Word Historian

 

 

 




St. Jerome
St. Jerome, patron of translators, searching for just the right word.

 

 

Y ou can use an ordinary dictionary to find extraordinary histories of words. This information is packed between the two brackets [ ] right before the definition of the entry word. (For an even richer experience, explore the venerable twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary with its wealth of detail.)

To Do And Notice

L ook up the word window . You'll find that it comes from the Middle English (ME) windowe , which came from the Old Norse (ON) vindauga , which itself was formed from the two Old Norse words vindr , which meant "wind," and auga , which meant "eye." So window once meant "wind-eye," a poetic description appropriately suggesting a window's function of letting in both air and light.

Find the history of other words. Look up words you've been curious about, or browse through the dictionary until a word catches your interest. Below are some words that Exploratorium staff members think have interesting histories.

book | poet | handsome | see | money | husband
stop
| physics | mathematical

Here are some helpful tips:
  • The earlier forms of a word are given in italics, and their definitions, when different from the meaning of the modern English form, are given in ordinary (roman) type
  • Here are some of the dictionary's most common abbreviations:

    OE - Old English, 7th to 12th centuries
    ME - Middle English, 12th to 15th centuries
    ON - Old Norse
    OHG - Old High German
    MF - Middle French
    L - Latin
    Gk - Greek
    Skt - Sanskrit

  • The abbreviation fr stands for "from" and indicates that a word came from an earlier form. The phrase akin to is used before words that are related to the original entry, although they are not its direct ancestors.
  • The words more at direct you to another dictionary entry where related words will be found.

 

What's Going On?

 


M any English words have their origins in other languages. By finding words with similar sounds and meanings in other languages, it's often possible to trace the history of a word back through many centuries. The history of a word, called its etymology , is often a good clue to its most essential meaning.

You can find additional explanations about the information in an entry in the front of your dictionary. Enjoy your discoveries!

 

Resources
 


T he following Web Sites are good online resources to use for this project:

Merriam-Webster Dictionary: WWWebster Dictionary

Merriam-Webster Thesaurus: WWWebster Thesaurus

     
Back Exploratorium Magazine  
 
© Exploratorium