Quotes About Etymology

However, one listing of common abbreviations compiled in 1859 includes 1 1 (dot dot, dot dot) for I AM READY; G A (dash dash dot, dot dash) for GO AHEAD, S F D for STOP FOR DINNER; G M for GOOD MORNING.

The etymology of the word "conscience" tells us that it is a special form of "knowledge" . . .The peculiarity of "conscience" is that it is a knowledge of, or certainty about, the emotional value of the ideas we have concerning the motives of our actions.

A science that closes its ears to philosophy fades into superficiality; a philosophy that pays no attention to the scientific knowledge of its time is obtuse and sterile. It betrays its own deepest roots, which are evident in the etymology of philosophy: the love of knowledge.

Webster's dislike of words that weren't pronounced the way they looked led him to decree that words such as centre and theatre should be spelled center and theater; he also dropped the silent u from words such as colour, favour and honour. In fact, Webster was single-handedly responsible for most of the differences between British and American spelling that survive to this day.

The English word psyche, meaning "soul" or "mind," comes from the Greek word psyche, meaning butterfly.

You should be careful when using these endless words. An acquaintance of mine once was fortunate enough to discover the most impressive word notalgia for back-ache. Mistakenly, however, he declared in a large company: 'I have such a nostalgia.' 'Oh, you want to go home to Nizhne-Novgorod?' asked his most sympathetic hostess. 'Not at all,' he answered. 'I just cannot sit down.

We must know words not as abstract grammatical and logical quantities, but as animated and social beings. Roots, inflections, word-book definitions, are products of the decomposition of speech, not speech itself. They are dead remains, stripped of their native attachments and functions, and hence it is that a living Danish scholar, himself a man of rare philological attainment and of keen linguistic perceptions, calls scholastic grammar 'the grave of language.

Thank you for the privilege of speaking to you in this magnificent auditorium. You know the meaning of the word auditorium, don't you? It is derived from two Latin words, audio, "to hear," and taurus, "the bull."

Historical grammar is a study of how, say, modern English developed from Middle English, and how that developed from Early and Old English, and how that developed from Germanic, and that developed from what's called Proto-Indo-European, a source system that nobody speaks, so you have to try to reconstruct it.

I always loved reading. I always was the spelling bee champion. I always loved words. I always wanted to know what they meant, why you used them, who first said them. I was always interested in that.

Even the word 'science' comes from an Indo-European root meaning 'to cut' or 'to separate.' The same root led to the word 'shit,' which of course means to separate living flesh from nonliving waste. The same root gave us 'scythe' and 'scissors' and 'schism,' which have obvious connections to the concept of separation.

People tried and failed to combine the words Izzy and Ymir. The closest they came was Izmir, but that had been the name of a city in Turkey.

Even the word 'science' comes from an Indo-European root meaning 'to cut' or 'to separate.' The same root led to the word 'shit,' which of course means to separate living flesh from nonliving waste.

Even the word 'science' comes from an Indo-European root meaning 'to cut' or 'to separate.' The same root led to the word 'shit,' which of course means to separate living flesh from nonliving waste. The same root gave us 'scythe' and 'scissors' and 'schism,' which have obvious connections to the concept of separation.

Indeed, the very word "galaxy" derives from the Greek galaxias, "milky.

My father named me Kelli because 'Kelli O'Hara' just sounded so Irish.

When Dr. Samuel Johnson had completed the first real dictionary of the English language, he was visited by a delegation of respectable old ladies who wished to congratulate him for not including any indecent words. His response - which was that he was interested to see that the ladies had been looking them up - contains almost all that needs to be said on this point.

Mauricio viene de Moisés, Isidoro de Isaac, Eduardo de Arón, Jaime de Jacob y Alfonso de Adán…

Could the word 'iron' be the root from which 'irony' is derived?

Il significato letterale di «parassita», dal greco antico, è «accanto al grano».

My name is Arsenio. That's a very unique name for a black man. In Greek, it means Leroy.

English is the result of Norman men-at-arms attempting to pick up Saxon barmaids and is no more legitimate than any of the other results.

POSH Before air-conditioning, cabins on the side of ocean liners facing the sun became unbearably hot. Thus richer passengers paid a premium to have their tickets on the P&O Line from England to India stamped "Port Out—Starboard Home." So p.o.s.h. became a synonym for someone who was upper class. PULL

I stop listening when academics start mixing their Greek and Latin roots. That never leads anywhere productive.