ETYMOLOGY [ĕt"ə-mŏl'ə-jē] 1. The derivation of a word. 2. A chronologicalaccountofthebirthanddevelopmentofaparticularwordorelementofaword,oftendelineatingitsspreadfromonelanguagetoanotheranditsevolvingchangesinformandmeaning. 3. thestudyofhistoricallinguisticchange,asmanifestedinindividualwords. Origin: 1350-1400;MiddleEnglish< Latinetymologia< Greeketymología -Dictionary.com
MY ADVENTURES WITH WORDS My first encounter with etymology was a chance occurrence in a British bookstore when I was in ninth grade. I was there on a particularly busy day, and, trying to get away from the more crowded part of the store, I stumbled across a section full of linguistics books that turned out to be really interesting. That moment proved to be very important in my life, and I quickly became obsessed with word origins. The intricate stories behind every term perfectly combined my interests in history, language, and geography.
After doing a bit more research for fun, I decided to undertake a project to teach both myself and others more about linguistics. I created this website on November 2, 2016, and it soon expanded to include pages for infographics, videos, cartoons, and much more. My hope is to make linguistics more accessible to a wide audience.
In May 2023, I graduated from Harvard cum laude in Government and Linguistics, after writing a senior thesis on language identity in former Yugoslavia.
Today, I'm mostly continuing this journey on TikTok here!
