ETYMON

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language | 1998 | 542 words | Copyright

ETYMON.
1. In the theory of LANGUAGE of the Stoic philosophers of ancient Greece, the true original form of which a current word is the degenerate descendant.

2. In PHILOLOGY, the earliest traceable form from which a later WORD is derived: for example, rex/regis (king) is the Latin etymon of English regal, while the Indo-European verbal ROOT *reg- (to move in a straight line, lead, rule) is the etymon of rex/regis, of Sanskrit rājā, and of the suffix -ric in bishopric. See ETYMOLOGY, INDO-EUROPEAN ROOTS, NOTATION, ROOT-WORD.

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TOM McARTHUR. "ETYMON." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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TOM McARTHUR. "ETYMON." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-ETYMON.html

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