Etymology

“Etymology itself has an etymology, and like so many other words, its meaning has changed over time.”

Source: saturdayeveningpost.com

(Kids Definition)

The history of a word shown by tracing it or its parts back to the earliest known forms and meanings both in its own language and any other language from which it or its parts may have been taken

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/              

“Etymology tells us where a word comes from, but not what it means today.”

Etymology traces back to the Greek etymon “true sense” + -logia ­“study of” (where all those -­ologies come from).

Dating back to classical times, etymologia was the analysis of a word in order to find its true sense.

This evolved through Latin, then Old French, and found itself in Middle English during the 14th century as ethimolegia.

“… (E)tymologists recognize that words get their meanings from the people who use them, and that those meanings can evolve as the words drift from one language to the next and with the ineffable passage of time.”

Source: saturdayeveningpost.com