Online Etymology Dictionary

Type	Private
Founded	Online (c.2000)
Headquarters	Lancaster, PA, USA
Key people	Douglas Harper, Founder Dan McCormack, Web Design and coding LogoBee.com, Logo Design
Employees	1
Website	etymonline.com
Type of site	Etymological dictionary
Registration	no
Available in	English
Current status	active
Screenshot Screenshot of etymonline.com

The Online Etymology Dictionary is a dictionary that describes the origins of English language words.^[1] The abbreviation, OED, coincides with the frequently used acronym for the Oxford English Dictionary, a coincidence unlikely to be lost on etymologists.

Contents 1 Description 2 Reviews and reputation 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Description

Douglas Harper originally created the online dictionary as a website where he could share some information on books and writers. Since then it has evolved into the etymology dictionary. Harper says that it has become a site for people "...who are curious about what sort of no-life obsessive-compulsive would do something like that."^[2] The dictionary uses the "history and evolution of more than 30,000 words, including slang and technical terms."^[3] It is described on its home page as:

“

... a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago. The dates beside a word indicate the earliest year for which there is a surviving written record of that word (in English, unless otherwise indicated). This should be taken as approximate, especially before about 1700, since a word may have been used in conversation for hundreds of years before it turns up in a manuscript that has had the good fortune to survive the centuries.[4]

”

[edit] Reviews and reputation

The Online Etymology Dictionary has been referenced by the University of Ohio's Library as an etymological resource^[1] and cited in the Chicago Tribune as one of the “best resources for finding just the right word.”^[5] It is used by many etymologists and is cited in numerous articles as a reliable source for explaining the history and evolution of words.^[6][7][8] Worldstart.com describes that “...this site is all about a love of language, and will teach you how it all began for each word.”^[9]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Online Etymology Dictionary