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Etymology (/ ˌ ɛ t ɪ ˈ m ɒ l ə dʒ i /, ET-im-OL-ə-jee [1]) is the study of the origin and evolution of words, including their constituent units of sound and meaning, across time. [2] In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics , etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. [ 1 ]
A non sequitur (English: / n ɒ n ˈ s ɛ k w ɪ t ər / non SEK-wit-ər, Classical Latin: [noːn ˈsɛkᶣɪtʊr]; "[it] does not follow") is a conversational literary device, often used for comedic purposes. It is something said that, because of its apparent lack of meaning relative to what preceded it, [1] seems absurd to the point of being ...
Faggot: The origin of the slur usage of the word "faggot" (originally referring to a bundle of firewood) may be from the term for women used in a similar way to "baggage", i.e. something heavy to be dealt with. The usage may also have been influenced by the British term "fag", meaning a younger schoolboy who acts as an older schoolboy's servant ...
A page from Elia Levita's Yiddish-Hebrew-Latin-German dictionary (16th century) including the word goy (גוי), translated to Latin as ethnicus, meaning heathen or pagan. [1] In modern Hebrew and Yiddish, goy (/ ɡ ɔɪ /; גוי , pl: goyim / ˈ ɡ ɔɪ. ɪ m /, גוים or גויים ) is a term for a gentile, a non-Jew. [2]
Gentile (/ ˈ dʒ ɛ n t aɪ l /) is a word that today usually means someone who is not Jewish. [1] [2] Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, have historically used the term gentile to describe outsiders.
Sine qua non." [2] In 1938, Jomo Kenyatta, the general secretary of the Kikuyu Central Association and who later became Kenya's first prime minister, wrote that the institution of female genital mutilation was the "condicio sine qua non of the whole teaching of tribal law, religion and morality
The Greek adjective katholikos, the origin of the term catholic, means 'universal'. Directly from the Greek, or via Late Latin catholicus , the term catholic entered many other languages, becoming the base for the creation of various theological terms such as catholicism and catholicity ( Late Latin catholicismus , catholicitas ).
Often, large dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's, will contain some etymological information, without aspiring to focus on etymology. [1] Etymological dictionaries are the product of research in historical linguistics. For many words in any language, the etymology will be uncertain, disputed, or simply unknown.