Etymonline
 Logo as of 2025[update] | |
 Homepage in 2007 | |
| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
Type of site | Etymological dictionary |
| Available in | English |
| Founded | c. 2000 |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Owner | Harper Family LLC |
| Key people |
|
| Employees | 1 |
| URL | www |
| Registration | Optional |
| Current status | Active |
Content license | Proprietary |
| OCLC number | 51773921 |
The Online Etymology Dictionary (sometimes abbreviated as OED and also known by its domain name, Etymonline) is an American online dictionary that describes the origins of English words, written and compiled mainly by Douglas R. Harper.[1]
Description
[edit]
Douglas R. Harper is an American Civil War historian and copy editor for LNP Media Group.[2][3] He compiled the etymology dictionary to record the history and evolution of more than 50,000 words, including slang and technical terms.[4] The core of its etymology information stems from The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology by Robert Barnhart, Ernest Klein's Comprehensive Etymology Dictionary of the English Language, The Middle English Compendium, The Oxford English Dictionary, and the 1889–1902 Century Dictionary.[5] Harper also researches on digital archives. On the Etymonline homepage, Harper says that he considers himself "essentially and for the most part" a compiler and evaluator of etymology research made by others.
Reviews and reputation
[edit]The Online Etymology Dictionary has been cited by Oxford University's "Arts and Humanities Community Resource" catalog as "an excellent tool for those seeking the origins of words".[6] It was also cited in the Chicago Tribune as one of the "best resources for finding just the right word".[7] It is cited in academic work as a useful reference for etymology.[8][9][10] In addition, it has been used as a data source for quantitative scholarly research.[11][12]
References
[edit]- ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary". Ohio University. 2003. Archived from the original on February 11, 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
- ^ "Q&A With Douglas Harper: Creator of the Online Etymology Dictionary – IMSE – Journal". June 18, 2015. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- ^ "Contact Us". LancasterOnline. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- ^ "Home Page". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
- ^ The dictionary's principal sources appear at Sources @ Online Etymology Dictionary
- ^ "Online etymology dictionary". Arts and Humanities Community Resource. Oxford University. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
- ^ Bierma, Nathan (January 3, 2007). "Internet has best resources for finding just the right word". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
- ^ Paluzzi, Alessandro; Fernandez-Miranda, Juan; Torrenti, Matthew; Gardner, Paul (2012). "Retracing the etymology of terms in neuroanatomy". Clinical Anatomy. 25 (8): 1005–1014. doi:10.1002/ca.22053. PMID 23112209. S2CID 19961679.
- ^ Hultgren, Anna Kristina (2013). "Lexical borrowing from English into Danish in the Sciences: An empirical investigation of 'domain loss'". International Journal of Applied Linguistics. 23 (2): 166–182. doi:10.1111/j.1473-4192.2012.00324.x.
- ^ Mair, Victor (April 10, 2015). "Farsi shekar ast". Language Log. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
Mair, Victor (January 28, 2016). "'Butterfly' words as a source of etymological confusion". Language Log. Retrieved March 22, 2018. - ^ Lieberman, Erez; Michel, Jean-Baptiste; Jackson, Joe; Tang, Tina; Nowak, Martin A. (2007). "Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of language". Nature. 449 (7163): 713–716. Bibcode:2007Natur.449..713L. doi:10.1038/nature06137. PMC 2460562. PMID 17928859.
- ^ Jatowt, Adam; Duh, Kevin (2014). "A framework for analyzing semantic change of words across time" (PDF). IEEE/ACM Joint Conference on Digital Libraries. pp. 229–238. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.678.3584. doi:10.1109/JCDL.2014.6970173. ISBN 978-1-4799-5569-5. S2CID 12357037.