San Antonio College Library

"Word Histories and Mysteries explores the origins of hundreds of the most interesting words in the English language." "Language aficionados will discover the unexpected links between such seemingly unrelated words as guest, hostility, and xenophobia - hidden connections often dating back over six thousand years ago to Proto-Indo-European, the ancestor of English spoken long before the invention of writing. English has also borrowed extensively from...

Reveals the history of language's building blocks and chronicles the etymologies of dozens of common words whose original meaning has been obscured through the passage of time.

Lists the origins and sense developments of more than eleven thousand English words and idioms, in a resource that provides first recorded dates and boxed elements that define word relationships.

This is a collection of stories about where our words have come from and how their meanings have grown.

In A Thesaurus of English Word Roots, all word roots are listed alphabetically, along with the Greek or Latin words from which they are derived together with the roots' original meanings. If the current meaning of an individual root differs from the original meaning, it is listed in a separate column. In the examples column, words that contain the root are listed, starting with their prefixes (e.g. dysacousia, hyperacousia). Variations where the root...

Collects more than three hundred common and lesser-known words that have animal origins, identifying the roots of such terms as "muscles," "merlot," "adulation," and "peculiar."

Contains over 30,000 entries with word derivations, spelling, pronunciation, and meanings. Also traces how the meanings have developed over time.