The etymology is a discipline diachronic of linguistics , which studies the origin of words.

It is based on laws of historical phonetics and the evolution semantics of terms considered.

Etymology is a compound word learned Greek , / etumologa, himself trained in the radical / tumos "true" and base--logia (derived "logos" speech, reason "), which provides names of disciplines. So, originally, the study of the true meaning of a word. This definition, however, must be overcome: the etymology is studying the origin if at least one state, the longest possible words.

We consider that the words of a language may, view diachronic , have three main origins:

• these are words of an older legacy of the same language or a parent language, words that have so suffered the process of phonetic evolution , the old term originally was named the new word etymon. For example, the Oxford Dictionary gives the following etymology:
  • for people: Latin populus; poblo (842); pueple, Pople ( XI ^century ), people (to 1430)
  • for ox: Latin bos, bovis; buef (XI ^century)
• these are words borrowed from another language, which are adapted to the phonological system and receiving graphical language;
• they are creations or " neologisms "(often from Greek roots and Latin for European languages, sometimes from roots to own the language itself, like the Icelandic ).

Doublets popular and scholarly

When, in one language, one etymon was inherited and borrowed later, the two words obtained are appointed doublets. We are a large number in French: Most French words indeed from the Latin , and some were sent from the Vulgar Latin by amending phonetically, the words are inherited, the same etymon has sometimes been borrowed later, in learned vocabulary, the two words from the same Latin etymon but having only taken two different paths are called respectively doublet doublet popular and scholarly. Their senses are mostly different, the pair learned keeping a sense closer to the etymological meaning. Thus the Latin word potionem gives potion in the scholarly language, but poison in the vernacular!

It is also the case for manufacturing etymon (m):

• inherited from the Vulgar Latin word gave forge after following the laws of phonetic evolution;
• The Latin word was borrowed from the ^fourteenth century as the pair learned manufactures.

Other important doublets, in order vulgar / scientist (Latin etymon): toe / article (articulum) thing / issue (causam), frail / brittle (fragilem), cold / frigid (frigidum), mussel / muscle ( musculum), business / ministry (Ministerium), sheet / table (tabulam), etc..

We must therefore distinguish between words inherited from the parent language that is Latin, and those that were borrowed.

Consult Doublet lexical for further information.

Sources borrowing from French

The French language has slowly developed from a Latin transforming itself according to its meetings with the Celts (Gauls), Franks , Burgundians , Visigoths and other peoples. It's probably about the time of Charlemagne that people are realizing this trend: they no longer speak Latin, but the "father" of French. But it was not until Francis ^I to that language supplanting Latin as the written language and even longer for it to be understood and spoken in all regions. It has borrowed many words from other languages:

• the Frankish during the Middle Ages , which gave many words in the vocabulary of war and armaments;
• the ancient Greek scholars to form words;
• to the Italian ;
• to the German ;
• to the Hebrew ;
• Languages Native American from the seventeenth ^century,
• Languages Indian (India)
• to the English , especially in the ^twentieth century ;
• to Arabic in the fields of astronomy, chemistry, mathematics and commerce;
• to Spanish , etc..

Harriet Walter in the Adventure of French words from elsewhere is: "For example, the French linguistic borrowing are real: the 35 and 000 words in a dictionary of standard French, 4200 are clearly borrowed from foreign languages, the main ones: the English (25%), the Italian (16.8%), the Frankish (13%), the Arab (5.1%).

For details of these loans, see section lexical borrowing.

See also

Bibliography

• Etymological and historical dictionary of French, Editions Larousse , Jean Dubois, Henri Mitterand, Albert Dauzat

Reference Site: TLF-Etym (CNRS) Related articles

• Comparative linguistics
• Historical phonetics
• Lexical borrowing
• Doublet lexical
• Lexicalization
• Root (linguistics)
• List of surnames became common names
• Folk etymology
• tymographie
• The origin of Indian names

External Links

• Etymological dictionary CNRS ATILF
• Common names from several words

• Language portal

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