etymology: [14] The underlying meaning of etymology is ‘finding the underlying or ‘true’ meaning of words’. Its ultimate source is Greek étumos ‘real, true’. From this was derived étumon ‘true or literal sense of a word’ (acquired by English in the 16th century as etymon). Postclassical grammarians came to use this in the sense ‘root from which a particular word was derived’, as a result of which modern etymology, the study of etymons, deals with their history rather than their meaning. [etymology etymology, etymology origin, 英语词源]