The search for meaningful origins for familiar or strange words is far older than the modern understanding of linguistic evolution and the relationships of languages, with its roots no deeper than the 18th century. From Antiquity through the 17th century, from Pindar to Sir Thomas Browne, etymology has been a form of witty wordplay, in which the supposed origins of words were mythologized to satisfy contemporary requirements, much as myths were formed to explain archaic rituals that were no longer comprehensible. In his Odes Pindar spins com ...

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Etymology, Etymology - Basic ideas in etymology, Etymology - English etymology, Etymology - History of etymology, Etymology - Bibliography

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Etymology is the study of the origins of words. Some words have been derived from other languages, possibly in a changed form (the source words are called etymons). Through old texts and comparisons with other languages, etymologists try to reconstruct the history of words — when they entered a language, from what source, and how their form and meaning changed. Etymologists also try to reconstruct information about languages that are too old for any direct information (such as writing) to be known. By comparing words in relat ...

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• Etymology - Basic ideas in etymology
• Etymology - English etymology
• Etymology - History of etymology
• Etymology - Bibliography

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A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. The vocabulary of a person is defined either as the set of all words that are understood by that person or the set of all words likely to be used by that person when constructing new sentences. So "curse" is a regular part of the vocabulary of native English speakers but "imprecate" is not, even though the two words are synonyms. The richness of a person's vocabulary is popularly thought to be a reflection of intelligence or level of education. Accordingly, many standardized tests, such ...

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• Vocabulary - Capacity
• Vocabulary - Access time

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Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained wide usage as the formal language of the Roman Empire. An inflectional and synthetic language, Latin relies little on word order, conveying meaning through a system of affixes attached to word stems. The Latin alphabet, derived from the Greek, remains the most widely-used alphabet in the world. Although now an extinct language with very few fluent speakers, Latin has had a major influence on many languages that are st ...

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• Latin - History
• Latin - Legacy
• Latin - Grammar
• Latin - Education

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As a language, English is derived from the Anglo-Saxon, a dialect of West Germanic (as was Old Low German), although its current vocabulary includes words from many languages. The Anglo-Saxon roots can be seen in the similarity of numbers in English and German, particularly seven/sieben, eight/acht, nine/neun and ten/zehn. Pronouns are also cognate: I/ich; thou/Du; we/wir; she/sie. However, language change has eroded many grammatical elements, such as the noun case system, which is grea ...

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Etymology, Etymology - Basic ideas in etymology, Etymology - English etymology, Etymology - History of etymology, Etymology - Bibliography

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Latin is a member of the family of Italic languages, and its alphabet, the Latin alphabet, is based on the Old Italic alphabet, which is in turn derived from the Greek alphabet. Latin was first brought to the Italian peninsula in the 9th or 8th century BC by migrants from the north, who settled in the Latium region, specifically around the River Tiber, where the Roman civilization first developed. Latin was influenced by the Celtic dialects and the non-Indo-European Etruscan language in northern Italy ...

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Latin, Latin - History, Latin - Legacy, Latin - Grammar, Latin - Education

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Jean Aitchison gives the capacity of the vocabulary of college graduates with bachelor of education degrees as a "guestimate" of at least 50,000, where a word is defined as a dictionary entry, i.e., sing, sings, sang, sung count as one entry sing. The vocabulary of an average native English speaker has been estimated at around 30,000. ...

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Vocabulary, Vocabulary - Capacity, Vocabulary - Access time

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Although Latin was once the universal academic language in Europe, in recent years it has been supplanted by the study of many other world languages; it is a requirement in relatively few places, and in some schools is not even offered. However, in Italy, Latin is still compulsory in secondary schools as Liceo Classico and Liceo Scientifico, which are usually attended by people who aim to the highest level of education. In Liceo Classico, ancient Greek is also a compulsory subject. In France Latin is being taught on the ...

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Latin, Latin - History, Latin - Legacy, Latin - Grammar, Latin - Education

Read more here: » Latin: Encyclopedia II - Latin - Education