Word Etymologies

Comments discuss the historical origins, derivations, and etymologies of various English words, often debating false etymologies, sharing facts, and linking to resources like etymonline and Wikipedia.

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4,672
Comments
20
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5
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#6231
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
2
2008
5
2009
22
2010
48
2011
67
2012
58
2013
87
2014
146
2015
135
2016
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2017
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2018
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2019
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2020
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2021
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2022
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2023
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2024
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2025
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2026
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Keywords

OA johnkerl.org ACLU OK M.Du etymonline.com index.php i.e PIE U.S word english words rap derived des language tale salt archaic

Sample Comments

suavesito • Mar 29, 2025 • View on HN

Not a coincidence, it was derived from the word!

toasterlovin • Jul 27, 2018 • View on HN

But 'common' is derived from Latin, too! :P

pvg • Aug 26, 2018 • View on HN

You probably mean 'etymology'. The other one is about bugs.

TazeTSchnitzel • Sep 23, 2020 • View on HN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_etymology

Either you mean "etymology", or that's a really unusual and interesting sentence :-)

sonthonax • Jun 13, 2016 • View on HN

What's the etymology of that?

vintermann • Sep 27, 2025 • View on HN

Etymologically I'm pretty sure it is.

ZeroGravitas • Jun 3, 2016 • View on HN

It's basically the same word. Just spelling/pronouncation getting corrupted down the years as it went latin-french-english.

zem • Nov 15, 2023 • View on HN

look up the (speculative) etymology of OK for instance

tptacek • Mar 19, 2012 • View on HN

In the sense of "that's where it came from".