Where did that word come from? Ever asked that question? [View all]

[MineralMan]

I ask it all the time, and word origins have been an interest of mine as long as I can remember. That interest has helped me immeasurably over the years, since I make my living as a writer, but words are interesting, no matter what you do. We all use words.

Studying the origins of words is called "etymology," and there are good resources for discovering the etymology of any word. One way is to enter the word and etymology as a Google search, e.g.: quintessence etymology. The results will give you several places to look, and even take you to discussions among etymologists arguing about those origins. Sometimes, those arguments sound like certain DU discussion threads, complete with trollery and insults. But, I digress.

You can also go to the Online Etymology Dictionary if you don't want to look at multiple websites. There, you'll find the most generally accepted etymology for most words you can imagine. Here's the link to that website:

http://www.etymonline.com/

Studying etymology also gives you an edge if you're a fan of word games. Just yesterday, my wife was doing some weird word puzzle in the newspaper, as is her habit (she's a writer, too, but not a fan of etymology). She often asks me questions about those games. Her question, yesterday, was about a synonym of "susurration." Now, I think I have probably encountered that word at some point in my 68 years on this planet, but I could not immediately come up with a synonym, so I used my experience with etymology to make an educated guess. I told her that it was probably an onomatopoeic word - a word that sounds like what it means - and I guessed that it meant "a whisper." Sure enough, "whisper" fit into her word puzzle, so my guess was correct. I love it when that happens, since she always gives me a strange look and asks, "How did you know that?"

Still, I visited the website above to see how accurate my educated guess was. Here's the result:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=susurration&searchmode=none

Anyhow, that's my OP for this Sunday. I hope it encourages people to learn more about words. They're fascinating, I think.