What You'll Find Here

• Take Our Word for It, the web's only weekly etymology magazine, has these regular features:

  • Spotlight: Each week we examine the etymology of a word and provide information on the theory and unusual events affecting its evolution.

  • Words to the Wise: This is our world-famous weekly etymological column wherein we answer your word history questions.

  • Curmudgeons' Corner: What's bugging us this time?

  • Sez You: Where the defiant ones speak. 

  • Laughing Stock: Where we share some funny stuff.

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• The Etymology Book Store

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• Back Issues

        Here read previous issues of Take Our Word For It.

• Archives

Skim through all of the words we've addressed since before Issue 1 of the current series (the current series is in the Back Issues).

• Etymological Theory

  Some theoretical aspects of etymology:

  • How Are Words Created?   Discover some of the processes by which words arise.

  • Ernest Weekley's Etymological Authenticator: Linguist Weekley's cardinal rules for testing the veracity and accuracy of a word's etymology, plus some addenda of our own.

  • Glossary: What did they say?

  • Roots: Peruse our list of Latin, Greek and other roots and affixes and their meanings.

  • Indo-European Phoneme Shifts: Examine our table of phonemes and how they change among the Indo-European languages.

  • Bibliography: How do we know all this stuff?

• Links

  It's not just etymology anymore!

• FAQ

  Read our answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about the site and about particular words and issues.

• Ask Us

  Couldn't find a word or phrase history in our database?  The doctor is in.  You can also find out how to get etymological information before your deadline.

• About

  Our background and history of the site, as well as some of the awards we've won.

• Search

        Search this entire site for a particular word or phrase.

• What's New?

        Find out what changes have been made to the site.

• The Institute for Etymological Research and Education

          The non-profit organization that makes this site possible.