What are some good sites for researching etymology?
I'm wondering about the origins of a particular word and, while my first thought was to ask the ELU community, I decided I should do the work myself.
Where should I start looking? I'd love to see some suggestions.
etymology research
add a comment |
I'm wondering about the origins of a particular word and, while my first thought was to ask the ELU community, I decided I should do the work myself.
Where should I start looking? I'd love to see some suggestions.
etymology research
5
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it should be migrated to meta.
– Mitch
2 days ago
@Mitch We cannot migrate questions this old to meta.
– tchrist♦
yesterday
The information can be copied and pasted into the resource post or something else on meta. I'm not sure why you reopened this @tchrist.
– Laurel
yesterday
@Laurel I suppose they could be, but I would not be comfortable making believe that other people's answers were my own.
– tchrist♦
yesterday
add a comment |
I'm wondering about the origins of a particular word and, while my first thought was to ask the ELU community, I decided I should do the work myself.
Where should I start looking? I'd love to see some suggestions.
etymology research
I'm wondering about the origins of a particular word and, while my first thought was to ask the ELU community, I decided I should do the work myself.
Where should I start looking? I'd love to see some suggestions.
etymology research
etymology research
edited Dec 16 '13 at 12:46
community wiki
4 revs, 3 users 43%
J.T. Grimes
5
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it should be migrated to meta.
– Mitch
2 days ago
@Mitch We cannot migrate questions this old to meta.
– tchrist♦
yesterday
The information can be copied and pasted into the resource post or something else on meta. I'm not sure why you reopened this @tchrist.
– Laurel
yesterday
@Laurel I suppose they could be, but I would not be comfortable making believe that other people's answers were my own.
– tchrist♦
yesterday
add a comment |
5
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it should be migrated to meta.
– Mitch
2 days ago
@Mitch We cannot migrate questions this old to meta.
– tchrist♦
yesterday
The information can be copied and pasted into the resource post or something else on meta. I'm not sure why you reopened this @tchrist.
– Laurel
yesterday
@Laurel I suppose they could be, but I would not be comfortable making believe that other people's answers were my own.
– tchrist♦
yesterday
5
5
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it should be migrated to meta.
– Mitch
2 days ago
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it should be migrated to meta.
– Mitch
2 days ago
@Mitch We cannot migrate questions this old to meta.
– tchrist♦
yesterday
@Mitch We cannot migrate questions this old to meta.
– tchrist♦
yesterday
The information can be copied and pasted into the resource post or something else on meta. I'm not sure why you reopened this @tchrist.
– Laurel
yesterday
The information can be copied and pasted into the resource post or something else on meta. I'm not sure why you reopened this @tchrist.
– Laurel
yesterday
@Laurel I suppose they could be, but I would not be comfortable making believe that other people's answers were my own.
– tchrist♦
yesterday
@Laurel I suppose they could be, but I would not be comfortable making believe that other people's answers were my own.
– tchrist♦
yesterday
add a comment |
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
etymonline is a great resource for looking up specific words.
If you are at a university, you might have OED access, which is the most in-depth and hardcore etymology resource (if you can get to it).
Take Our Word For It is a fun website for browsing through and learning about etymologies in a more entertaining, less structured way.
3
All great suggestions. In my experience a lot of phrase or word etymologies will appear in one source but won't appear in another or vice versa, so my favorite method is still to just google each one and include the word etymology.
– Dan
Sep 7 '10 at 19:30
+! for OED, my absolute favorite–still pricy, good note on uni access
– Charlie
Sep 9 '10 at 0:57
1
+1 again for the OED. Many public libraries also have OED access, depending on where you live.
– PLL
Nov 8 '11 at 13:55
add a comment |
General purpose:
- Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Books, set date range and sort by date*- Google Ngram Viewer
- Bill Mullins has a giant list of Full Text Databases
- Internet Archive
- Project Gutenberg
- HathiTrust Digital Library
- Topsy for Tweets
The Right Rhymes: hop-hop slang defined
Rap Stats by Rap Genius gives an idea of earliest use, but cannot be searched by time
Newspapers:
- USA: Chronicling America (1836-1922) by the Library of Congress
- Australia: Trove (-1954) by the National Library of Australia
- New Zealand: Papers Past (1839-1945) by the Nation Library of New Zealand
Particularly for computing terms:
Google Groups for Usenet archives (also good for slang) (1981 - present)
DSpace@MIT for the CSAIL archives (1959 - present)- IETF's RFC archive (1969 - present)
PDP-10 software archive (~1967 - ~1990), for old source code
Tech Model Railroad Club dictionary, TMRC 1st & 2nd editions (1959, 1960)
The Jargon File and its archives (also here) (1981 - 2003)- MIT's The Tech newspaper archives (1881 - present)
Bitsavers' Software and PDF Document Archive (misc. dates)
* Care must be taken with Google Books' metadata, especially when only a snippet is shown: occasionally the book was published later than the the year Google claims it was, and sometimes they accidentally include multiple books for each record.
Therefore it's important to double check the date: scroll up to confirm the real date for "full view" books, and for preview/"snippet view" verify with another source (such as the Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg or the HathiTrust Digital Library).
add a comment |
I would also like to add our etymology dictionary that draws directed etymology graphs called Etymologeek.com.
Here is an example of a directed graph:
It works in multiple languages, providing etymology data, descendants, related words and more. It also has a pretty quick search, and the index is constantly growing in the number of words and slowly growing in accuracy too.
add a comment |
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3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
etymonline is a great resource for looking up specific words.
If you are at a university, you might have OED access, which is the most in-depth and hardcore etymology resource (if you can get to it).
Take Our Word For It is a fun website for browsing through and learning about etymologies in a more entertaining, less structured way.
3
All great suggestions. In my experience a lot of phrase or word etymologies will appear in one source but won't appear in another or vice versa, so my favorite method is still to just google each one and include the word etymology.
– Dan
Sep 7 '10 at 19:30
+! for OED, my absolute favorite–still pricy, good note on uni access
– Charlie
Sep 9 '10 at 0:57
1
+1 again for the OED. Many public libraries also have OED access, depending on where you live.
– PLL
Nov 8 '11 at 13:55
add a comment |
etymonline is a great resource for looking up specific words.
If you are at a university, you might have OED access, which is the most in-depth and hardcore etymology resource (if you can get to it).
Take Our Word For It is a fun website for browsing through and learning about etymologies in a more entertaining, less structured way.
3
All great suggestions. In my experience a lot of phrase or word etymologies will appear in one source but won't appear in another or vice versa, so my favorite method is still to just google each one and include the word etymology.
– Dan
Sep 7 '10 at 19:30
+! for OED, my absolute favorite–still pricy, good note on uni access
– Charlie
Sep 9 '10 at 0:57
1
+1 again for the OED. Many public libraries also have OED access, depending on where you live.
– PLL
Nov 8 '11 at 13:55
add a comment |
etymonline is a great resource for looking up specific words.
If you are at a university, you might have OED access, which is the most in-depth and hardcore etymology resource (if you can get to it).
Take Our Word For It is a fun website for browsing through and learning about etymologies in a more entertaining, less structured way.
etymonline is a great resource for looking up specific words.
If you are at a university, you might have OED access, which is the most in-depth and hardcore etymology resource (if you can get to it).
Take Our Word For It is a fun website for browsing through and learning about etymologies in a more entertaining, less structured way.
edited Sep 7 '10 at 18:50
community wiki
2 revs
Kosmonaut
3
All great suggestions. In my experience a lot of phrase or word etymologies will appear in one source but won't appear in another or vice versa, so my favorite method is still to just google each one and include the word etymology.
– Dan
Sep 7 '10 at 19:30
+! for OED, my absolute favorite–still pricy, good note on uni access
– Charlie
Sep 9 '10 at 0:57
1
+1 again for the OED. Many public libraries also have OED access, depending on where you live.
– PLL
Nov 8 '11 at 13:55
add a comment |
3
All great suggestions. In my experience a lot of phrase or word etymologies will appear in one source but won't appear in another or vice versa, so my favorite method is still to just google each one and include the word etymology.
– Dan
Sep 7 '10 at 19:30
+! for OED, my absolute favorite–still pricy, good note on uni access
– Charlie
Sep 9 '10 at 0:57
1
+1 again for the OED. Many public libraries also have OED access, depending on where you live.
– PLL
Nov 8 '11 at 13:55
3
3
All great suggestions. In my experience a lot of phrase or word etymologies will appear in one source but won't appear in another or vice versa, so my favorite method is still to just google each one and include the word etymology.
– Dan
Sep 7 '10 at 19:30
All great suggestions. In my experience a lot of phrase or word etymologies will appear in one source but won't appear in another or vice versa, so my favorite method is still to just google each one and include the word etymology.
– Dan
Sep 7 '10 at 19:30
+! for OED, my absolute favorite–still pricy, good note on uni access
– Charlie
Sep 9 '10 at 0:57
+! for OED, my absolute favorite–still pricy, good note on uni access
– Charlie
Sep 9 '10 at 0:57
1
1
+1 again for the OED. Many public libraries also have OED access, depending on where you live.
– PLL
Nov 8 '11 at 13:55
+1 again for the OED. Many public libraries also have OED access, depending on where you live.
– PLL
Nov 8 '11 at 13:55
add a comment |
General purpose:
- Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Books, set date range and sort by date*- Google Ngram Viewer
- Bill Mullins has a giant list of Full Text Databases
- Internet Archive
- Project Gutenberg
- HathiTrust Digital Library
- Topsy for Tweets
The Right Rhymes: hop-hop slang defined
Rap Stats by Rap Genius gives an idea of earliest use, but cannot be searched by time
Newspapers:
- USA: Chronicling America (1836-1922) by the Library of Congress
- Australia: Trove (-1954) by the National Library of Australia
- New Zealand: Papers Past (1839-1945) by the Nation Library of New Zealand
Particularly for computing terms:
Google Groups for Usenet archives (also good for slang) (1981 - present)
DSpace@MIT for the CSAIL archives (1959 - present)- IETF's RFC archive (1969 - present)
PDP-10 software archive (~1967 - ~1990), for old source code
Tech Model Railroad Club dictionary, TMRC 1st & 2nd editions (1959, 1960)
The Jargon File and its archives (also here) (1981 - 2003)- MIT's The Tech newspaper archives (1881 - present)
Bitsavers' Software and PDF Document Archive (misc. dates)
* Care must be taken with Google Books' metadata, especially when only a snippet is shown: occasionally the book was published later than the the year Google claims it was, and sometimes they accidentally include multiple books for each record.
Therefore it's important to double check the date: scroll up to confirm the real date for "full view" books, and for preview/"snippet view" verify with another source (such as the Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg or the HathiTrust Digital Library).
add a comment |
General purpose:
- Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Books, set date range and sort by date*- Google Ngram Viewer
- Bill Mullins has a giant list of Full Text Databases
- Internet Archive
- Project Gutenberg
- HathiTrust Digital Library
- Topsy for Tweets
The Right Rhymes: hop-hop slang defined
Rap Stats by Rap Genius gives an idea of earliest use, but cannot be searched by time
Newspapers:
- USA: Chronicling America (1836-1922) by the Library of Congress
- Australia: Trove (-1954) by the National Library of Australia
- New Zealand: Papers Past (1839-1945) by the Nation Library of New Zealand
Particularly for computing terms:
Google Groups for Usenet archives (also good for slang) (1981 - present)
DSpace@MIT for the CSAIL archives (1959 - present)- IETF's RFC archive (1969 - present)
PDP-10 software archive (~1967 - ~1990), for old source code
Tech Model Railroad Club dictionary, TMRC 1st & 2nd editions (1959, 1960)
The Jargon File and its archives (also here) (1981 - 2003)- MIT's The Tech newspaper archives (1881 - present)
Bitsavers' Software and PDF Document Archive (misc. dates)
* Care must be taken with Google Books' metadata, especially when only a snippet is shown: occasionally the book was published later than the the year Google claims it was, and sometimes they accidentally include multiple books for each record.
Therefore it's important to double check the date: scroll up to confirm the real date for "full view" books, and for preview/"snippet view" verify with another source (such as the Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg or the HathiTrust Digital Library).
add a comment |
General purpose:
- Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Books, set date range and sort by date*- Google Ngram Viewer
- Bill Mullins has a giant list of Full Text Databases
- Internet Archive
- Project Gutenberg
- HathiTrust Digital Library
- Topsy for Tweets
The Right Rhymes: hop-hop slang defined
Rap Stats by Rap Genius gives an idea of earliest use, but cannot be searched by time
Newspapers:
- USA: Chronicling America (1836-1922) by the Library of Congress
- Australia: Trove (-1954) by the National Library of Australia
- New Zealand: Papers Past (1839-1945) by the Nation Library of New Zealand
Particularly for computing terms:
Google Groups for Usenet archives (also good for slang) (1981 - present)
DSpace@MIT for the CSAIL archives (1959 - present)- IETF's RFC archive (1969 - present)
PDP-10 software archive (~1967 - ~1990), for old source code
Tech Model Railroad Club dictionary, TMRC 1st & 2nd editions (1959, 1960)
The Jargon File and its archives (also here) (1981 - 2003)- MIT's The Tech newspaper archives (1881 - present)
Bitsavers' Software and PDF Document Archive (misc. dates)
* Care must be taken with Google Books' metadata, especially when only a snippet is shown: occasionally the book was published later than the the year Google claims it was, and sometimes they accidentally include multiple books for each record.
Therefore it's important to double check the date: scroll up to confirm the real date for "full view" books, and for preview/"snippet view" verify with another source (such as the Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg or the HathiTrust Digital Library).
General purpose:
- Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Books, set date range and sort by date*- Google Ngram Viewer
- Bill Mullins has a giant list of Full Text Databases
- Internet Archive
- Project Gutenberg
- HathiTrust Digital Library
- Topsy for Tweets
The Right Rhymes: hop-hop slang defined
Rap Stats by Rap Genius gives an idea of earliest use, but cannot be searched by time
Newspapers:
- USA: Chronicling America (1836-1922) by the Library of Congress
- Australia: Trove (-1954) by the National Library of Australia
- New Zealand: Papers Past (1839-1945) by the Nation Library of New Zealand
Particularly for computing terms:
Google Groups for Usenet archives (also good for slang) (1981 - present)
DSpace@MIT for the CSAIL archives (1959 - present)- IETF's RFC archive (1969 - present)
PDP-10 software archive (~1967 - ~1990), for old source code
Tech Model Railroad Club dictionary, TMRC 1st & 2nd editions (1959, 1960)
The Jargon File and its archives (also here) (1981 - 2003)- MIT's The Tech newspaper archives (1881 - present)
Bitsavers' Software and PDF Document Archive (misc. dates)
* Care must be taken with Google Books' metadata, especially when only a snippet is shown: occasionally the book was published later than the the year Google claims it was, and sometimes they accidentally include multiple books for each record.
Therefore it's important to double check the date: scroll up to confirm the real date for "full view" books, and for preview/"snippet view" verify with another source (such as the Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg or the HathiTrust Digital Library).
edited May 23 '14 at 13:12
community wiki
7 revs
Hugo
add a comment |
add a comment |
I would also like to add our etymology dictionary that draws directed etymology graphs called Etymologeek.com.
Here is an example of a directed graph:
It works in multiple languages, providing etymology data, descendants, related words and more. It also has a pretty quick search, and the index is constantly growing in the number of words and slowly growing in accuracy too.
add a comment |
I would also like to add our etymology dictionary that draws directed etymology graphs called Etymologeek.com.
Here is an example of a directed graph:
It works in multiple languages, providing etymology data, descendants, related words and more. It also has a pretty quick search, and the index is constantly growing in the number of words and slowly growing in accuracy too.
add a comment |
I would also like to add our etymology dictionary that draws directed etymology graphs called Etymologeek.com.
Here is an example of a directed graph:
It works in multiple languages, providing etymology data, descendants, related words and more. It also has a pretty quick search, and the index is constantly growing in the number of words and slowly growing in accuracy too.
I would also like to add our etymology dictionary that draws directed etymology graphs called Etymologeek.com.
Here is an example of a directed graph:
It works in multiple languages, providing etymology data, descendants, related words and more. It also has a pretty quick search, and the index is constantly growing in the number of words and slowly growing in accuracy too.
answered 2 days ago
community wiki
lyzazel
add a comment |
add a comment |
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5
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it should be migrated to meta.
– Mitch
2 days ago
@Mitch We cannot migrate questions this old to meta.
– tchrist♦
yesterday
The information can be copied and pasted into the resource post or something else on meta. I'm not sure why you reopened this @tchrist.
– Laurel
yesterday
@Laurel I suppose they could be, but I would not be comfortable making believe that other people's answers were my own.
– tchrist♦
yesterday