ET'YMOL'OGY (Lat. etymologia, from Gk. k-u• poXoyta, from grupos, ctymos, true +-Xoyia,-logia, account, from NI7ELP, !(' !yin, to say). That branch of philology (q.v.) which deals with the deriva tion of words and with their comparison in dif ferent members of the same lang,nage-group. In its relation to the other great subdivisions of linguistic science, phonology. morphology, and syntax, etymology stands in closest association with phonology. Without rigid scientific adher ence to phonetic law (q.v.) there can lie no real etymology. On the other hand. phonology in its non-physiological aspect is based on etymology. The earliest of all the branches of linguistics to attract attention was etymology. The word was first used as a philosophical, not as a linguistic term. The (;reek Stoles, in their disputations with the Skeptics, asserted that language existed by nature, not by convention. Words were there fore real (Gk. ;'rupos), and it was the task of etymology, according to the Stoic view, to prove this reality. It is, however, noteworthy that long before the foundation of the Stoic Seined, Plato (q.v.) made an approximation to the kern method in his Gratifies. Not only does he there set forth for the first time the elemental divisions of Creek phonology, but he intentionally etymologizes. Thus, he correctly connects lann,, woman, with yoll), seed. and going a step fur ther he declares that the words for lire (rap), water (Map), and dog (.Wan') are almost the same in Greek as in Phrygian, which we now know to be related to the Armenian (ef. Armenian her, lire, gel, water, sun, dog). Independently of Greece, India developed a study of language far more exact and thorough than any other ancient people ever did. As in Greece etymology had sprung from philosophy, in India it had its basis in religion. The first formal treatise on etymolo gy in Sanskrit is Yaska's Nirukta (literally, out spoken), which dates perhaps from as far back as the fifth century B.C. The Nirkuta, which ranks as one of the six Vedangas, or members of the Veda. was composed to explain hard words in the Itigveda. The stress laid upon the source and meaning of the words, both in lndia.and in Greece, is highly significant of the practical value of ety mology. It is safe to affirm that without ety mology' there can be no exact orthoepy. Exact
ness in the use of words is in direct proportion to the exactness of knowledge of their meaning, and exactness of knowledge of their meaning is in its turn in large measure conditioned by exactness of knowledge of their origin. Again, the attempt to etymologize is found in the earliest literary rec ords. The Indian Yajur Veda (q.v.) abounds in these primitive etymologies, many of which are extremely naïve and erroneous (as the story that the deity Prajapati swelled up, (aeayat, and from this swelling, it:writhe, came the horse, ogre), while others are still deemed correct (as when by day, diva, Prajapati created the gods, derfis, "for that is their godhead," daralrom). In the Bible Ere (Hel). .11awica, Gen. iii. 20) is popularly derived from to be, and in Gen. ii. 23, isksha, woman, is explained as a derivative of ish, man. This primitive kind of etymology is still common, and is known as popular, or better as folk-etymology. It is sometimes right, and as frequently wrong. Often among those who are unacquainted with the history of words, there will be found attempts to etymologize them as being related to others to which they may have some phonetic or, less commonly, some graphic resemblance. Examples of this are exceedingly numerous. Thus, German Trahnwitz, frenzy, is popularly associated with 'yawn, to think, es pecially to think incorrectly, whereas it really signifies, as the Old High German form wan-a Irizzi shows, witlessness, the first component be ing warm, without. Another instance is German Rfindflut, deluge, connected popularly with sfin den, to sin, but which is really derived from sin vluot, great flood. In English we have words like bridegroom. (shortened also into groom), really bride's man (Anglo-Saxon brydgenta), associated with grooms; island, properly isle-land (Anglo Saxon eg-lend), which has been explained as land like an eye in the waters: crayfish (French ecri visse, erab). which is supposed to be a sort of fish, or asparagus (Gk. lzardpayosl, which becomes sparrow-grass in rustic speech. Abortive as many of the popular etymologies are, they are none the less important as indicating the univerral need, felt by such as employ language, for some sort of explanation of the meaning of the words they use.