etymology (n.)

The term traditionally used for the study of the origins and history of the FORM and MEANING of WORDS. In so far as etymology derives its methods from LINGUISTICS (especially SEMANTICS), it may be seen as a branch of HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS. The linguistic form from which a later form derives is known as its etymon. A folk etymology occurs when a word or phrase is assumed to come from a particular etymon, because of some association of form or meaning, and is altered to suit that assumption, e.g. spit and image becomes spitting image. The etymological fallacy is the view that an earlier (or the oldest) meaning of a word is the correct one (e.g. that history ‘really’ means ‘investigation’, because this was the meaning the etymon had in classical Greek). This view is commonly held, but it contrasts with the attitude of the linguist, who emphasizes the need to describe the meanings of modern words as they are now, and not as they once may have been in some earlier state of the language (the ‘oldest’ state, of course, being unknown)