etymology [LME] The original meaning of etymology was rather grander than simply tracing the origin of a word. Rather, it was a discovery of the truth. It came, via French and Latin, from Greek etymologia, from etymon ‘the truth’. Plato and other Greek philosophers and their medieval followers believed that knowing the original form of a word could reveal its true, essential meaning and teach you more about creation. Similarly, philology [LME] now means the study of the history of language (nowadays largely replaced by ‘historical linguistics’), but was originally a love of learning and literature, the word formed from Greek philo- ‘loving’ (see philately) and logos ‘reason, word’ (see logic).