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The online etymology dictionary (etymonline) is the internet's go-to source for quick and reliable accounts of the origin and history of English words, phrases, and idioms. It is professional enough to satisfy academic standards, but accessible enough to be used by anyone.
"facts of the origin and development of a word," from Old French etimologie, ethimologie… See origin and meaning of etymology.
"collection of words and phrases," probably a shortening of dictionarius (liber) "(book)… See origin and meaning of dictionary.
"speech, talk, utterance, sentence, statement, news, report, word," from Proto-Germanic… See origin and meaning of word.
"ancestry, race," from Latin originem (nominative origo) "a rise, commencement,… See origin and meaning of origin.
Old English locian "use the eyes for seeing, gaze, look, behold, spy," from West Germanic *lokjan (source also of Old Saxon lokon "see, look, spy," Middle Dutch loeken "to look," Old High German luogen, German dialectal lugen "to look out"), a word of unknown origin.
The usual Old Norse word was heimr, literally "abode" (see home). Words for "world" in some other Indo-European languages derive from the root for "bottom, foundation" (such as Irish domun, Old Church Slavonic duno, related to English deep); the Lithuanian word is pasaulis, from pa-"under" + saulė "sun."
The modern meaning "recorded events of the past" is from late 15c., as is use of the word in reference to a branch of knowledge. The meaning "a historical play or drama" is from 1590s.
Etymology is the study of the origin of words and how the meaning of words has changed over the course of history.
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 2nd ed., revised by Sir Ernest Gowers, Oxford University Press, 1965. Gamillscheg, Ernst, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der Französischen Sprache , Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1928.