Reference - Dictionaries - Etymology
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The Mavens' Word of the Day
- Daily explanation about new words, word origins, and slang expressions from Jesse Sheidlower, a senior editor in Random House's Reference Division.
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Take Our Word for It
- Weekly etymology magazine.
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World Wide Words
- More than 400 pages on the history, origins, evolution and idiosyncrasies of English. New words and words in the news regularly featured.
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The Word Detective
- Words and language in a humorous vein. The online version of The Word Detective, a newspaper column answering readers' questions about words and language. Written by Evan Morris.
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MooT
- The game of grammar, semantics, and etymology. Play online the game that investigates the history and meaning of English words.
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Fun With Word Origins
- Samples of the etymological books from word-lover Martha Barnette, author of "Ladyfingers & Nun's Tummies" and "A Garden of Words."
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An Etymological Dictionary of Classical Mythology
- The influence of classical mythology on the English language, astronomy, calendar terms, personal names, phrases and conversation, and pop culture.
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The Etymology of Noid
- The story of noid, from its birth on the Merv Griffin TV show to the present.
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Focusing on Words
- An advanced Latin-Greek-English vocabulary source of etymologies with thematic units of roots, prefixes, and suffixes, and vocabulary quizzes.
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Richard Lederer's Verbivore
- Linguistic fun from, Richard Lederer, the best-selling author of The Word Circus and the new Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay, a helpful guide for grappling with vexing grammar questions.
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What's The Meaning of This?
- The origins of quirky English words and phrases like "In like Flynn" and "blackmail."
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Origin of Phrases
- Categorized etymologies of phrases.
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Etymologically Speaking
- A list of some curious word origins.
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Nautical Expressions in the Vernacular
- Myriad expressions in everyday English have nautical origins. This web page lists expressions and definitions mentioned by listswains, members of the Patrick O'Brian Mailing List, also known as the Gunroom.
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New Words In English
- Neologisms and novel uses of words in English collected by members of the class Linguistics/English 215, Words in English: Structure, History and Use, taught by Suzanne Kemmer at Rice University.
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Oxford English Dictionary
- Presents a word a day complete with pronunciation, spellings, etymology, quotations and date chart.
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Sayings and Everyday Expressions
- Your online source for the sayings and expressions you use everyday. Search for their meaning, history and origin, find sayings, expressions, phrases, quotations, cliches, unusual words, and wordplay.
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Behind the Name
- The etymology and history of first names.
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A Word with You
- A daily on-line column, featuring little known facts about well known words and phrases.
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Word Philes for Word Files
- A rich source of English words that are derived from Latin and Greek elements.
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Etymology
- Word origins and links.
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Words with Heathen Origins in the Scriptures
- An etymological study of numerous words used in churches and Scriptures that have their origin in pagan religions.
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Word and Phrase Origins
- Guide designed for anyone who is looking for the origin of words and/or phrases.
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New York State Facts
- The origins of New York State's county names.
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Taiwan Teacher
- A new word or phrase posted every week giving you the meaning, origin and an example of the usage of the word or phrase.
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Books about Etymology
- Recommended by fun-with-words.com.
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Where Do Plants Get Their Names From?
- A brief anaylaia of the origins of common plant names.
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Etymology : The Science of Word Histories.
- Contains several interesting and intriguing word histories.
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Butterfly Etymology
- The etymology of butterfly, moth and caterpillar in several languages.
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Word Origins and Meanings of Economic Terms
- A handy word origins list. Click on the word and you'll go right to a brief discussion of its origin.
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What's In Your Name ? Dictionary of Last Names
- A database on last names, providing information on etymology and history of surnames
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Roots of English
- An etymological dictionary you can download by Prof. Eugene Cotter, Seton Hall University.
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Word Origins
- This regularly updated page, provided by The Writer's Place, focuses on a word and its spelling, pronunciation, and derivation.
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Phrase Finder
- An A to Z list of the origins and meanings of English phrases and sayings with bibliography of etymological reference works.
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Word Spy
- Collection of recently coined words, existing words that have enjoyed a recent renaissance, and older words that are now being used in new ways.
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Altaic Etymology
- Online version of the Altaic Etymological Dictionary by S. Starostin, A. Dybo and O. Mudrak.
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Online Etymology Dictionary
- History and evolution of more than 30,000 words, including slang and technical terms.
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Pandora's Word Box
- Relates medical terminology to the humanities, offering a weekly overview with references to classical etymology.
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American Dialect Society
- A scholarly association dedicated to the study of the English language in North America.
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Dave Wilton's Etymology Page
- Devoted to etymology of common words and slang phrases.
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English words from Latin-Greek etymology
- Word source for English vocabulary derived from Latin and Greek etymological origins.
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Etymologic
- The brain-twisting etymology game.
