Quotes About Etymology

#1. The word 'glamour' comes from the word 'grammar', and since the Chomskyan revolution the etymology has been fitting. Who could not be dazzled by the creative power of the mental grammar, by its ability to convey an infinite number of thoughts with a finite set of rules?

Steven Pinker

#2. The word 'sin' is derived from the Indo-European root 'es-,' meaning 'to be.' When I discovered this etymology, I intuitively understood that for a [person] trapped in patriarchy, which is the religion of the entire planet, 'to be' in the fullest sense is 'to sin'.

Mary Daly

#3. Grammar, which is the art of using words properly, comprises four parts: Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody.

Samuel Johnson

#4. If you actually look at the etymology of the word 'hallucination', what it's come to mean in English is a delusion. But what it really means in the original language is to wander in the mind. That's the meaning of 'hallucination', to wander in the mind.

Terence McKenna

#5. Democracy is something America has never really practiced. Because the Founding Fathers hated two things: monarchy and democracy. They wanted a republic, a replica of the Roman or Venetian republics. They didn't even like the etymology of the word "democracy."

Gore Vidal

#6. 'Religion,' I should note, has a disputed etymology in Latin: some say it's from 'relegere,' meaning 'to reread', while others say it's from religare, meaning 'to connect' or 'link.' Literature is life's fastener.

Joshua Cohen

#7. The accepted etymology of the word religion was that it came from religere, meaning "to bind together," but Cicero had said its true root was relegere, "to reread." The truth was, she liked both answers.

James S.A. Corey

#8. Where would you be without etymology'? Lea asked sarcastically.
'I think I might find words a little less interesting,' said Mr Ruche.

Denis Guedj

#9. Thank goodness it's you, not that madman who came last time, the one with the bullfighter's name. He seemed drunk to me, or else eminently certifiable. He had the nerve to ask me whether I knew the etymology of the word 'prick,' in a sarcastic tone that was quite out of place.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon

#10. Miss Lucy's called the bell o' St. Ogg's, they say: that's a cur'ous word,' observed Mr. Pullet, on whom the mysteries of etymology sometimes fell with an oppressive weight.

George Eliot

#11. I have observed gratitude to be a principle, that bears the smallest share in the hearts of those where it ought to be most strongly resident, so that I begin to imagine one half of the world don't understand the real etymology of the word.

Charlotte Charke

#12. The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.

Giambattista Vico

#13. It is obvious that 'Algiz' is a pure Semitic word. The presence of the definite article is one indication. Another sign for us lies in its shared etymology with the name of 'Giza' - the location of the Scales/Balance whose Semitic word is derived from that very same etymology.

Ibrahim Ibrahim

#14. Do not lose your enthusiasm. In its Greek etymology, the word enthusiasm means, "God in us."

Ken Burns

#15. The word 'courage,' one of my favorite words, the root or the etymology of that word is 'cour,' which means heart. I think true courage is actually following your heart and not getting or succumbing to what other people's definition of what your life should be. Live your life.

Hill Harper

#16. The author gives an interesting naval etymology of the word "opportunity". It referred to days in which sailing ships had to wait outside a port for the appropriate tide, which then was their chance until the next tide.

Mark Batterson

#17. Moving from phonetics to etymology, 'vagina' originates from a word meaning sheath for a sword. Ain't got no vagina.

Inga Muscio

#18. To really touch something, she is learning - the bark of a sycamore tree in the gardens; a pinned stag beetle in the Department of Etymology; the exquisitely polished interior of a scallop shell in Dr. Geffard's workshop - is to love it.

Anthony Doerr

#19. Names, once they are in common use, quickly become mere sounds, their etymology being buried, like so many of the earth's marvels, beneath the dust of habit.

Salman Rushdie

#20. Etymology: from Latin ad-, "to" + visum, past participle of videre, "to see". Advice is what you get from your parents when you are growing up, and from your children when you are growing old.

Evan Esar

#21. The French word for wanderlust or wandering is 'errance.' The etymology is the same as 'error.' So to wander is to make mistakes. In other words, to make mistakes, to make errors is sort of the idea of learning through trial and error, allowing the mistakes to be part of the process.

Robyn Davidson

#22. THE WORD wife comes from the Proto-Indo-European weip. Weip means to turn, twist, or wrap. In an alternative etymology, the word wife comes from Proto-etc., ghwibh. Ghwibh means pudenda. Or shame.

Lauren Groff

#23. Few now would associate de-roofing with the police, but the verb 'to detect' originated in detegere - a detective raises the roof, figuratively.

Lucy Sussex

#24. Refer me to one atheist who denies the existence of God ... Etymologically, as well as philosophically, an atheist is one without God. That is all the 'A' before 'Theist' really means.

George William Foote

#25. The bridge between the words glamour and grammar is magic. According to the OED, glamour evolved through an ancient association between learning and enchantment.

Roy Peter Clark

#26. The word should be thinkering.

Michael Ondaatje

#27. Vimes had believed all his life that the Watch were called coppers because they carried copper badges, but no, said Carrot, it comes from the old word cappere, to capture.

Terry Pratchett

#28. It's a totally ridiculous, completely unsexy word. If you use it during sex, trying to be politically correct
"Darling, could you stroke my vagina?"
you kill the act right there. I'm worried about vaginas, what we call them and don't call them.

Eve Ensler

#29. I feel the gods are pretty dead, though I suppose I ought to know that however, to be somewhat more philosophical in the matter, if atheism means simply not being a theist, then of course I'm an atheist.
[Letter to Max Otto]

John Dewey

#30. The suffix 'naut' comes from the Greek and Latin words for ships and sailing. Astronaut suggests 'a sailor in space.' Chimponaut suggests 'a chimpanzee in sailor pants'.

Mary Roach

#31. Do you know where 'policeman' comes from, sir? ... 'Polis' used to mean 'city', said Carrot. That's what policeman means: 'a man for the city'. Not many people knew that. The word 'polite' comes from 'polis', too. It used to mean the proper behaviour from someone living in a city.

Terry Pratchett

#32. The etymologist finds the deadest words to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

#33. The word mortgage originates in French. it literally means 'death grip'.

Michael McGirr