Etymology is a linguistic discipline which studies the history of words. It examines how words arise and evolve over time, how their forms and meanings change.
Not unlike detectives from famous crime series we will trace the origin of the most common and mundane words to reveal their fascinating histories. For instance, we will find out that nice originally meant ‘foolish and silly’, that glamour comes from grammar, and that to sell originally meant simply ‘to give’.
We will study how and why words change their form and investigate complex genetic relationship between various languages. Meaning changes and various reasons why words become obsolete will also be dealt with. Several classes will be devoted to the study of lexical borrowings. We will learn how to distinguish borrowings from cognates and the major reasons for borrowing from one language to another. A part of our discussion will be devoted to the social factors that trigger major and minor changes in a lexicon.
From a practical point of view, students will learn how to use etymological dictionaries and how to analyse lexical data from a historical perspective.