Etymological dictionary

An etymological dictionary discusses the etymology of the words listed. Often, large dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's, will contain some etymological information, without aspiring to focus on etymology.

Etymological dictionaries are the product of research in historical linguistics. For a large number of words in any language, the etymology will be uncertain, disputed, or simply unknown. In such cases, depending on the space available, an etymological dictionary will present various suggestions and perhaps make a judgement on their likelihood, and provide references to a full discussion in specialist literature.

The tradition of compiling "derivations" of words is pre-modern, found for example in Indian (nirukta), Arabic (al-ištiqāq) and also in Western tradition (in works such as the Etymologicum Magnum). Etymological dictionaries in the modern sense, however, appear only in the late 18th century (with 17th-century predecessors such as Vossius' 1662 Etymologicum linguae Latinae or Stephen Skinner's 1671 Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae), with the understanding of sound laws and language change and their production was an important task of the "golden age of philology" in the 19th century.

Print

• English
  • Robert K. Barnhart & Sol Steinmetz, eds. Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology. Bronx, NY: H. W. Wilson, 1988 (reprinted as Chambers Dictionary of Etymology).
  • C.T. Onions, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966.
  • George William Lemon the English etymologist and author of A derivative dictionary of the English language: in two alphabets, tracing the etymology of those English words, that are derived I. From the Greek, and Latin languages; II. From the Saxon, and other Northern tongues. London, Printed for G. Robinson (1783).
  • Eric Partridge, Origins: A short etymological dictionary of Modern English. New York: Greenwich House, 1958 (reprint: 1959, 1961, 1966, 2008).
• Chinese
  • Axel Schuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007.
• Czech
  • Holub, J., Kopečný, F., Etymologický slovník jazyka českého. Prague: Státní nakladatelství učebnic (1952) [1933]
  • Machek, Václav, Etymologický slovník jazyka českého. Prague: NLN, Nakladatelství Lidové noviny (2010 [1971]) [1957]
  • Holub, J., Lyer, S., Stručný etymologický slovník jazyka českého se zvláštním zřetelem k slovům kulturním a cizím. Prague: SPN (1992) [1967]
  • Rejzek, Jiří, Český etymologický slovník. Voznice: LEDA (2012 [2001])
• Finnish
  • Suomen sanojen alkuperä – The Origin of Finnish Words (vol. 1, A–K 1992; vol. 2, L–P 1995; vol. 3, R–Ö 2000), Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus and Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.
• German
  • Friedrich Kluge, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache (= “Etymological Dictionary of the German Language”), 26th edn., ed. Elmar Seebold. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2013 (1st edn. 1883).
  • Wolfgang Pfeifer, ed. Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen. Munich: dtv, 1995 (7th edn., 2004).
  • Duden, Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache, 5th edn. Berlin: Duden, 2013.
• Icelandic
  • Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon, Íslensk orðsifjabók
• Old Irish
  • Sanas Cormaic, encyclopedic dictionary, 9th or 10th century
  • Joseph Vendryes, Lexique étymologique de l'irlandais ancien (first volume 1959; still incomplete), Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and CNRC Éditions, Paris.
• Old Prussian
  • Vytautas Mažiulis, Prūsų kalbos etimologijos žodynas (1988–1997), Vilnius.
• Polish
  • Aleksander Brückner, Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego, 1st edn. Kraków: Krakowska Spółka Wydawnicza, 1927 (9th edn. - Warsaw: Wiedza Powszechna, 2000).
  • Wiesław Boryś, Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego, 1st edn. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2005.
• Portuguese
  • Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa has much etymological information.
• Proto-Indo-European
  • Carl Darling Buck, A dictionary of selected synonyms in the principal Indo-European languages, University of Chicago Press, 1949 (paperback edition 1988).
  • Julius Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2 vols. Tübingen—Berne—Munich: A. Francke, 1957/1969 (5th edn., 2005).
• Sanskrit
  • Manfred Mayrhofer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen, 3 vols. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1992/1998/2001.
• Scots
  • John Jamieson, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1808), revised 1879–97.
• Serbo-Croatian
  • Alemko Gluhak, Hrvatski etimološki rječnik. Zagreb: August Cesarec, 1993.
  • Petar Skok, Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (= “Etymological Dictionary of the Croatian or the Serbian Language”), 4 vols. Zagreb: Jugoslavenska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti 1971-1974.
• Slovene
  • France Bezlaj, Etimološki slovar slovenskega jezika, SAZU, Ljublana 1977" (ISBN 86-11-14125-3), COBISS 10028033
  • Marko Snoj, Slovenski etimološki slovar, Založba Modrijan, Ljublana 2003" (ISBN 961-6465-37-6), COBISS 124973312
• Spanish
  • Corominas, J., Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols. Madrid: Gredos, 1980-1991 (ISBN 84-249-1362-0)
  • Guido Gómez de Silva, Elsevier's Concise Spanish Etymological Dictionary. Elsevier Sciences, 1985. (ISBN 968-16-2812-8)
  • Edward A. Roberts, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words Based on Indo-European Roots, 2 vols. (vol. 1: A-G; 2: H-Z). Xlibris, 2014.
• Swedish
  • Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok. Lund, Gleerups (1922-1980). (ISBN 91-40-01978-0)
  • Birgitta Ernby, Norstedts etymologiska ordbok. Stockholm, Norstedts Förlag (2008). (ISBN 978-91-7227-429-7)
• Turkish
  • Clauson, Gerard Leslie Makins, Sir; An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish, Oxford University Press, London, 1972.
  • Sevan Nişanyan, Sözlerin soyağacı: çağdaş Türkçenin etimolojik sözlüğü. Beyoğlu (Istanbul): Adam, 2002.

Online

Indo-European languages

• – Croatian Etymological Dictionary
• – An Online Etymological Dictionary of the English language compiled by Douglas Harper
• – Ancient Greek Etymological Dictionary by H. Frisk
• – An Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon by Alwin Kloekhorst
• – Indo-European Etymological Dictionary by S. A. Starostin et al.
• – Gaelic Etymological Dictionary by A. MacBain
• – Gothic Etymological Dictionary by Andras Rajki
• – Nepali Etymological Dictionary by R. L. Turner
• – Romanian Etymological Dictionary
• – Russian Etymological Dictionary by Max Vasmer, Heidelberg (1962), 4 volumes
• – Swedish Etymological Dictionary by Elof Hellquis

Afroasiatic languages

• – Afroasiatic Etymological Dictionary by S. A. Starostin et al.
• – Arabic Etymological Dictionary by Andras Rajki
• – Hebrew Etymological Dictionary by Isaac Fried

Altaic languages

• – Altaic Etymological Dictionary by S. A. Starostin et al.
• – Chuvash Etymological Dictionary by M. R. Fedotov
• – Gagauz Etymological Dictionary
• – Mongolian Etymological Dictionary
• – Turkish Etymological Dictionary by Sevan Nişanyan "Sözlerin Soyağacı – Çağdaş Türkçe'nin Etimolojik Sözlüğü" (Third ed. Adam Y. Istanbul 2007)

Austronesian languages

• – Austronesian Comparative Dictionary by R. A. Blust
• – Indonesian Etymological Dictionary by S. M. Zain
• – Maori Etymological Dictionary by E. Tregear
• – Waray Etymological Dictionary

Bantu languages

• – Bantu Etymological Dictionary
• – Swahili Etymological Dictionary

Creole languages and conlangs

• – Bislama Dictionary with etymologies by Andras Rajki
• – Esperanto Etymological Dictionary
• – Morisyen Etymological Dictionary
• – Volapük Dictionary

Uralic languages

• – Uralic Etymological Dictionary by S. A. Starostin et al.
• – Estonian Etymological Dictionary by Iris Metsmägi, Meeli Sedrik, Sven-Erik Soosaar
• – Finnish Etymological Dictionary
• – Hungarian Dictionary with etymologies by Andras Rajki
• – Saami Etymological Dictionary

Other languages and language families

• – Basque Etymological Dictionary
• – Dravidian Etymological Dictionary by T. Burrow
• – Kartvelian Etymological Dictionary by G. A. Klimov
• – Mayan Etymological Dictionary by T. Kaufman and J. Justeson
• – Munda Etymological Dictionary by D. Stampe & al.
• – North Caucasian Etymological Dictionary by S. A. Starostin et al.
• – Thai Etymological Dictionary by M. Haas

External links

• Etymological Bibliography of Take Our Word For It, the only Weekly Word-origin Webzine
• Indo-European Etymological Dictionary (IEED) at Leiden University
• Internet Archive Search: Etymological Dictionary Etymological Dictionaries in English at the Internet archive
• Internet Archive Search: Etymologisches Wörterbuch Etymological Dictionaries in German at the Internet archive
• Online Etymology Dictionary (see also its Wikipedia article)
• Open Directory - Reference: Dictionaries: Etymology at DMOZ