Questions about words, and the people who used them.

Etymology is the study of the origin of words and how their meanings have evolved over time. It traces words back through history, often across multiple languages, to uncover their earliest known forms and the cultural contexts that shaped them.

The word "etymology" comes from the Greek "etymologia," combining "etymon" (true sense of a word) and "logia" (study of). It entered English in the 14th century via Latin. So etymology is, quite literally, the study of the true meaning of words.

Approximately 29% of English words derive directly from Latin, with another 29% coming from French (which itself largely derives from Latin). About 26% come from Germanic languages, and the remaining 16% from Greek and other sources.

Words evolve through several processes: semantic shift (where "nice" originally meant "ignorant" in Latin), borrowing from other languages (like "algorithm" from Arabic), compounding existing words (like "smartphone"), and back-formation (where "edit" was derived from "editor").

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Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family, believed to have been spoken approximately 4500-2500 BCE. It is the root of languages including English, Spanish, Hindi, Russian, and Greek—connecting roughly half of the world's population through linguistic heritage.

Simply type any English word into the search bar and press Enter. The app will trace its origins, show you its root components, visualize its ancestry through different languages, and reveal fascinating stories about how the word evolved to its current meaning.