What the heck is etymology, you ask?
Etymology is the study of the origin of words--not to be confused with entomology or enterology, which are the studies of insects and intestines, respectively. The word etymology comes from the Greek etymon, meaning "true sense" and -logia meaning "study of".
People like yourself have been interested in the history of words for hundreds of years, perhaps even longer. Like any other question of origin that we may ask, it is a search for the beginnings of things and a home of sorts.
Can you recall the first time a teacher, friend, or parent told you where a particular word or phrase came from, or about the original meaning of something?
Language and culture are a virus of sorts. They are passed on by our minds' communication. It is ethereal for the most part, not a part of the physical world in the way that our brains are. It is the software to our body's hardware. And across millennia snippets of these viral "codes" have survived, although altered a bit, to be passed on even by ourselves.
Many people attribute the beginnings of modern etymology to Sir William Jones, who came to understand that ancient Latin and Greek were related to Sanskrit. Others made similar connections, but his was the clincher. From it sprung the studies of historical and comparative linguistics and also Indo-European studies. We now know that almost every language from Iceland to India and the places between are related.
If you are interested in languages from those regions in Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, then you will be interested in checking this blog from time to time to see what ideas we are exploring.
Whether you would like to challenge a known etymology or suggest a relationship not considered before, leave a comment.
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