Etymologies
25 Jul 2026Etymologies of English Words and How to Tell Where Words Originate In the last post, we established what primary subfields of linguistics are going to be discussed a lot on here. However, I left out one specific topic that I wanted to talk about in this post, given how controversial it can be. In the area of historical linguistics and philology, there lies etymology. Etymology refers to where words originate, or rather which language or culture words come from. Today, I want to share how you can sometimes figure out the etymology of a word given the anatomy of said word.
English as a Germanic Language
In spoken, written, and signed languages, there exists these things called language families. Language families tell a story about the cultures certain languages develop from. For instance, I bet you, the reader, have heard the term “romantic language” or “romance language” before in conversation, or in reading. Specifically when talking about languages like Spanish, French, Italian, and Latin. Unfortunately for popular culture, this does not mean that speaking one or multiple of these languages makes you a romantic, nor does it mean that you automatically flirt better. This term just refers to where specific languages like the aforementioned developed from; in this case, primarily Classical Latin. In English, most of the roots of our words come from a long-gone language called Proto-Indo-European (PIE). Where this language was spoken is heavily debated, but a majority stance says that it was spoken from what is known as modern Moldova and western Ukraine, all the way to Kazakhstan. Eventually via migration and phonological shifts in speech and sound patterns, PIE became spoken in Northern Europe, specifically in the Celtic parts of the world. In the same way, before the Roman Iron age, Proto-Germanic as well as Germanic languages started to be spoken in northern and western Europe. Germanic developed into Old Frisian, Old Saxon (which would eventually become English), and Old German. In the fifth century, Old Saxon was transformed into Old English, when the Angles and the Saxons migrated to England and formed the Anglo-Saxon culture. Eventually after time had passed, trades were made, and migration continued, English became what we know it to be today.
How Do We Trace Words Back?
Sometimes in English, it’s super easy to tell which language a word has developed from, or been adopted from. Just look at the ending of a word, and most of the time, you can understand which language has dibs. When looking at professions, we can see the suffix “ist” at the end of most words: “linguist,” “optometrist,” “audiologist,” “anesthesiologist,” “therapist,” etc. All of these words can be traced back to ancient Greek because of the suffix “-ist.” The ancient Greek “istes” (ιστής) means “one who practices” or “one who believes.” This is the main reason a lot of medical professions have the suffix “-ist” in their official titles. The remaining parts of these words usually stem from either ancient Greek, or sometimes, classical Latin (which, as a speaker of classical Latin, I believe is kind of gross and annoying). Words in English that end with the suffix “-ish,” or “-er,” almost always stem from Old English and Proto-Germanic. The suffix “-i” is borrowed from semitic languages, “-ese” from ancient Greek or Latin, and others like “-ian,” “-ant,” “-or,” and “-ent,” from Old French or Latin. The most interesting part is that the suffixes, though borrowed from these old counterparts, are used in similar ways today as they were used then. From Old French and Latin, the suffixes we use today are used in words like “vacant,” “omniscient,” and “editor,” all depicting a profession, state of being, or emotion. Unfortunately though, not all words are so easy to decode, and need to be traced back a little further.
Broken Rules
Within anything that has to deal with language, there are loopholes, broken rules, and the unfortunate truth that nobody can fully understand every single etymology of every single word. Though one can try, certain words, including nouns that developed from old-world professions or survival necessities are not fully easy to pinpoint on a specific origin point just from looking at them. For example, the word “milk.” There are some cognates in other languages for this word, like “Milch” in German, “Melk,” in Dutch, and “moloko,” (молоко) in Russian and Ukrainian. Because this word has many cognates across more than one language family, it’s important to understand that the English word “milk” came from the PIE word “h₂melǵ,” meaning “to rub” or “to milk,” indicating the action needed to get milk from an animal, then “meluk” in Proto-Germanic, then “meoluc,” or “milc” in Old English, to what we know today as “milk.” However, some experts believe that another, more valid etymology came from ancient Greek and Latin words like “gala” in ancient Greek, and “lactis” in Classical Latin. This would develop as “galakt” in PIE, and continue in the same direction as the previously discussed etymology would depict.
Debates in Etymology
Because PIE is so ancient, scholars often debate over pronunciation, dialectical differences, and true etymologies of certain words, as we just witnessed in the case of the word “milk.” Most of these debates involve different factors concerning folk origin, dialect, and structural misanalysis. Think of colloquial, vernacular, or slang terms. In the case of the British English word “bloke” meaning a macho Englishman, scholars argue whether this word came from Gaelic, Romani, or simply the abbreviation of a slang word. Considering all of the factors laid out for linguists, it can be troubling when trying to decide where a word entirely comes from, or where it developed originally. This proves especially difficult in fiction works, where names or words are completely made up on the spot. There is no significant etymology for the word “thneed” for an example, in the Dr. Seuss book “The Lorax,” or “Oz” in “The Wizard of Oz.” While these words don’t have any significant etymology other than being created by an author, there are many other words that are contested to this day by linguists worldwide. Love is a strong word, but to be adamant about something is to be insistent that you are correct about something. However, linguists argue whether adamant derives from the Latin word “adamare” meaning to love something to completion, or from the ancient Greek “adamas” (ἀδάμας) meaning indomitable. This is because the word has multiple different definitions, one meaning “an extremely hard substance” with ties to a certain stone, and another definition being “unshakeable or insistent.” Whether to believe one side is decided by how well you read the third paragraph on this page. We know that the suffix “-ant” means that a given word comes from Old French, or Classical Latin, therefore, it makes sense that the word “adamant” comes from Latin, given the prefix it has meaning “to love” in Latin. However, with the one definition being related to a very hard stone, it makes sense to connect it back to the Ancient Greek, if you don’t care about the anatomy of words. This is just one example of debates in the field of etymology, but there are countless others that spark debates constantly.
Sources
Garnier, Romain, and Laurent Sagart. Milk and the Indo-Europeans. www.academia.edu, https://www.academia.edu/28256403/Milk_and_the_Indo_Europeans. Accessed 23 June 2026.
germanculture. The Birth of German: From Proto-Germanic to Old High German. 23 June 2025, https://germanculture.com.ua/language/proto-germanic-to-old-high-german-evolution/.
“Old English.” Ancient Language Institute, https://ancientlanguage.com/old-english/. Accessed 23 June 2026.
| Proto-Indo-European Language | Discovery, Reconstruction, Divergence, Structure, & Facts | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Proto-Indo-European-language. Accessed 23 June 2026. |