November 21, 2004, 18:35
<wordnerd>Etymology of etymology & entomology
Just now picked up this while surfing the net.
The word
etymology ultimately comes from Greek
etymon, meaning "the true sense of a word based upon its origin." It is related to
eteos, meaning "true". It first appeared in English in 1398.
Entomology (1766) is from Greek
entomon, meaning "insect", and that Greek word has an interesting background. It comes from Greek
entemnein, meaning "to cut (a notch) into". Why would a notch-cutting word be applied to insects? Think of an ant, for example, and you'll picture the abrupt notches because the segments of its body.
Other terms have been coined to refer to the study of insects. They include
insectology (1882) and
bugology (1846).