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
Years Active
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
195
2017
252
2018
318
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".