Start This Feature At Its Beginning

caution

In Word Origins, The Muse Of Language Arts is not trying to replace the dictionary. Instead, The Muse takes a romp through the pastures of words.

The Muse seeks to amuse while enlightening, to have some worthwhile fun. As a result, although The Muse strives for accuracy where accuracy can be had, it would be unsafe to rely on this feature for authoritative linguistic information. Take what is offered with a grain of salt and in the spirit in which it is offered.

If you seek the authority of scholarship, The Muse advises you to consult an expert source like Webster's Unabridged Dictionary or the Oxford English Dictionary. Many excellent books written by experts in the field of etymology are free at libraries or can be acquired at reasonable cost. Check with the ETAF-Amazon Collection for suggestions.

As you romp with The Muse, be wary:

Etymology is the relevant branch of linguistics, but The Muse is not trying to be an etymologist, nor is it trying to formalize its approach or become scientific.
Word origins are often lost in antiquity and many cannot be reconstructed. As a result, at best a word's source often can only be guessed at; at worst, hope of recovery is altogether out of the question.
Often the "scientific" etymology of a word is obscure, ambiguous, doubtful, speculative, or unknown. Scholars and other expert sources often disagree on an origin or can only guess about it.
It's fun to speculate in such cases, and The Muse feels free to indulge in speculation on how a word acquired the meaning in has today, on its relations to other words, and so on. Such speculations are not wild, however; they are always based on clues or rational thought.
The Muse treats slang, speculates about origins, and sometimes takes liberties with etymological data.
There is no attempt to be exhaustive or complete by listing every definition or every sense of a word. A word may have more than one sense, but she may only explore the one (or ones) that titillate.
The Muse may take liberties with interpretations or may stretch the connections among words.