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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. [1]
Nitwit, a colloquial noun for a stupid person, may refer to: an idiot; Nittany Nation, formerly known "Nittwits", a student organization; Dr. Nitwhite, a scientist in Between the Lions commonly called "Dr. Nitwit", much to his chagrin; Sid Millward and His Nitwits, a British parody band between the 1930s and 1970s
The dictionary content is licensed from Oxford University Press's Oxford Languages. [3] It is available in different languages, such as English, Spanish and French. The service also contains pronunciation audio, Google Translate, a word origin chart, Ngram Viewer, and word games, among other features for the English-language version.
An etymological dictionary discusses the etymology of the words listed. 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 ...
the Oxford English Dictionary says the etymology is "uncertain", but Welsh gwlanen = "flannel wool" is likely. An alternative source is Old French flaine, "blanket". The word has been adopted in most European languages. An earlier English form was flannen, which supports the Welsh etymology.
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 ]
Git / ɡ ɪ t / is a term of insult denoting an unpleasant, silly, incompetent, annoying, senile, elderly or childish person. [1] As a mild [2] oath it is roughly on a par with prat and marginally less pejorative than berk.
James A.H. Murray, the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (1879–1928) says Webster's unabridged edition of 1864 "acquired an international fame. It was held to be superior to every other dictionary and taken as the leading authority on the meaning of words, not only in America and England, but also throughout the Far East." [19]