1. Etymology

2. What is it??? Someone invented every word we know. Etymology is the study of a word’s history or origin.

3. In a dictionary entry, the etymology usually appears just before the definitions. If you look up the word corral in a dictionary the etymology that follows looks like this: [SP< corro, a circle, ring<L currus, cart< currere, to run]

4. This means that corral comes from a Spanish word, corro, meaning “a circle or ring.” The Spanish word came from a Latin word, currus, meaning “cart,” which in turn comes from the Latin word currere, meaning “to run.” SP = Abbreviation for Spanish < = “comes from”

5. How do I make sense of all of the information? Dictionaries often have a guide in the beginning that explains all language abbreviations and other symbols. Be careful, though - Not all dictionaries symbols are the same.

6. Other examples: The Ancient Greek word hippos means horse, and the word potamus means river. Hence hippopotamus literally means river horse. Weird, huh???

7. Oxford English Dictionary OED Created in 1857 because an extensive dictionary of the English language did not exist. The dictionary traces every word back to its first appearance in the English language. The history of some words are gathered from hundreds of years of literature.

8. More OED fun facts This dictionary is constantly revised. New words are considered by the OED and some are added to our language each year. Recently the OED selected to add the words celebutante, crunk, and hoodie. The OED provides extensive etymologies for every word in the English language. WOW!