Uploaded December 2011 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Definition of etymology Merriam-Webster:
1: the history of a linguistic form (as a word) shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found, by tracing its transmission from one language to another, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages, or by tracing it and its cognates to a common ancestral form in an ancestral language
2: a branch of linguistics concerned with etymologies
There is nothing in there about constructing new words.
merriam-webster.com/dictionary/etymology
This video is a response to BionicDance's video to ZOMGitsCriss youtube.com/watch?v=DgBCYeU5qvY
This is also the comment section referenced in my video.
From The Online Etymology Dictionary (which is a wonderful online tool for looking at prefixes/word combinations and how they changed):
"This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago."
etymonline.com
For instance, look at the differences between agnostic and aglow.
Definition of etymology Merriam-Webster:
1: the history of a linguistic form (as a word) shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found, by tracing its transmission from one language to another, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages, or by tracing it and its cognates to a common ancestral form in an ancestral language
2: a branch of linguistics concerned with etymologies
There is nothing in there about constructing new words.
merriam-webster.com/dictionary/etymology
This video is a response to BionicDance's video to ZOMGitsCriss youtube.com/watch?v=DgBCYeU5qvY
This is also the comment section referenced in my video.
From The Online Etymology Dictionary (which is a wonderful online tool for looking at prefixes/word combinations and how they changed):
"This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago."
etymonline.com
For instance, look at the differences between agnostic and aglow.
