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The Online Etymology Dictionary or Etymonline, sometimes abbreviated as OED (not to be confused with the Oxford English Dictionary, which the site often cites), is a free online dictionary that describes the origins of English words, written and compiled by Douglas R. Harper.
Also apophthegm. A terse, pithy saying, akin to a proverb, maxim, or aphorism. aposiopesis A rhetorical device in which speech is broken off abruptly and the sentence is left unfinished. apostrophe A figure of speech in which a speaker breaks off from addressing the audience (e.g., in a play) and directs speech to a third party such as an opposing litigant or some other individual, sometimes ...
For example, the Latin word candidus, which means ' white ', is the etymon of English candid. Relationships are often less transparent, however. Relationships are often less transparent, however. English place names such as Winchester , Gloucester , Tadcaster share different forms of a suffix that originated as the Latin castrum ' fort ' .
The word originally referred to the game hand-i'-cap, in which forfeits were placed in a cap to equalize the game. [68] [69] Hiccough, an alternate spelling still encountered for hiccup, originates in an assumption that the second syllable was originally cough. The word is in fact onomatopoeic in origin.
A fact is a true datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance. [1] Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by experiments or other means. For example, "This sentence contains words."
Example of an entry from a historical dictionary ('encyclopedia' from the New English Dictionary), showing use of cited quotations and chronological ordering of senses. Typical features of a historical dictionary are: Senses of words listed in the order they were first used, allowing the development of meaning over time to be seen [1]
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first edition in 1884, traces the historical development of the English language, providing a comprehensive resource to ...
As a result of confusion over the meaning of factoid, some English-language style and usage guides discourage its use. [9] William Safire in his "On Language" column advocated the use of the word factlet instead of factoid to express a brief interesting fact as well as a "little bit of arcana" but did not explain how adopting this new term would alleviate the ongoing confusion over the ...