What is etymology? Detailed analysis

The article tells about what etymology is, what this science does and what methods it uses in its work.

Language

Any live language, on which people actively speak, is gradually changing. The degree of this depends on many different factors. For example, the amount of elapsed time since its inception, the level of political or cultural self-isolation of the country and the official position, which refers to borrowed words. In the same France, for all foreign words, a domestic analogue is selected or created. And some of the languages of the Scandinavian group have hardly changed over the course of a millennium.

But not all languages can boast of this, besides it is not always an indicator of quality or uniqueness. The Russian language is one of the most diverse, and over the centuries it has changed a lot. And from the conversational speech of our ancestor, say, from the XV century, we would understand only single words.

It was in order to determine the origin of words or morphemes, and a section of linguistics such as etymology was created. So what is etymology and what methods does it use in its activities? In this we will understand.

Definition

Etymology is a section of linguistics that deals with the study of the origin of words. It is also a research technique used to reveal the history of the appearance of a word in a language and the very result of such a study. This term originated back in the time of Ancient Greece, and up to the XIX century it could be used as the meaning of the word "grammar".

Answering the question, what is the etymology of the word, it is worth mentioning that by this term the very origin of the morpheme is often implied. For example: "In this case, you need to find a more convincing etymology," or: "The word notebook has Greek etymology."

Now let us briefly consider the development of this science and the methods it uses for research.

History

Even in ancient Greece, before the appearance of etymology as such, many scholars were interested in the origin of various words. If we consider the later antique times, then the etymology was considered one of the parts of the grammar, accordingly, it was solely the grammars. So now we know what etymology is.

In the Middle Ages, no significant changes were made to the methods of etymology research. And before the appearance of such a method as a comparative-historical one, most etymologies had a very doubtful character. And this was observed in both European and Slavic languages. For example, the philologist Trediakovsky believed that the etymology of the word "Italy" comes from the word "udaliya" because this country is far removed from Russia. Naturally, because of such methods of determining the origin, many considered etymology to be an absolutely frivolous science.

Comparative-historical method

Thanks to this method, etymology could very accurately explain the origin of the set of words. Use it in our time. Its essence lies in a set of techniques that prove the affinity of some languages, the origin of words and reveal various facts from their history. It is also based on a comparison of phonetics and grammar.

Etymology of the Russian language

If we talk about the origin and history of the Russian language, then there are three main periods: it is Old Russian, Old Russian and the period of the Russian national language, which began in the XVII century. And from the ancient Russian form, by the way, almost all the languages of the East Slavic group occurred.

Like in any other language, in Russian there are words that have roots in both its ancient forms and borrowed.

For example, the word "nonsense" came from the name of the French doctor Gali Mathieu, who did not differ in doctoral skills and "treated" his patients with jokes. True, he soon gained popularity, and even healthy people began to invite him to enjoy his humor.

And the well-known word "swindler" comes from the word "moshna" - the name of the purse in which they used to carry money. And the thieves that zarilis on him, called scammers.

Now we know what etymology is. As you can see, this is a rather interesting discipline that sheds light on the origins of many words.