Studies of individual words

Etymology is the study of the origin of words. It aims to reveal the initial internal word form.

The internal word-form (внутрішня форма слова) a fragment of meaning manifested with the external (sound) form of a word. It is the subsidiary lexeme which serves to signify (to become a sign of) a new meaning. .

Motivated words are derivatives whose internal word-form is overt, or transparent, e.g. Eng. teacher (to teach), librarian (library), three-storied (three stories), the bottle ‘alcohol’ (bottle) computer memory (human memory); Ukr. брак (брати), музикант (музика), тризуб (три зуба), блюдо ‘їжа’ (блюдо ‘посуд’), собака ‘людина’ (собака ‘тварина’). Non-motivated words are units whose internal word-form is covert, or opaque, e.g. Engl. man, wall, pen, table, fox; Ukr. книга, дім, лампа, дівчина, земля.

The covert internal form, which is established via etymological analysis, is called an etymon. E.g. Engl. table (from Lat. tabula ‘board’), pauper (from Latin pauper ‘poor’), linguistics (from Latin lingua ‘language’); Ukr. капуста (від лат. caput ‘голова’), канікули (від лат. canis ‘пес’ – влітку над Римом стояло сузіря Пса).

Folk etymology is associating the word form with that of similar words which somewhat resemble it but which are not at all related. E.g. French sur(o)under ‘overflow’ was interpreted in English as –r(o)under and associated by mistake with ‘round’; cf. Russ. фельетон ‘клеветон’, микроскоп ‘мелкоскоп’, вариация ‘верояция’, таблица умножения ‘долбица умножения’, пиджак ‘спинжак’, бульвар ‘гульвар’.

Translator’s ‘false friends’ relate to folk etymology. They are words whose form resembles that of another language; however, the meanings of such words are different, which should be born in mind by translators. E.g. Engl. vs. Russ.: family (семья) – фамилия, magazine (журнал) – магазин, complexion (цвет лица) – комплекция, pilot (лоцман) – пилот.

Historical Lexicology is the study of changes that both the form and the meaning of a word undergo through history.