etymologist

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In 1934, Allen Walker Read, an etymologist and lexicographer, laid out the history of the word that, then, had “the deepest stigma of any in the language.”

From New York Times • Apr. 30, 2021

John Kelly, an etymologist and senior research editor at Dictionary.com, wrote in a 2017 post on his etymology website, Mashed Radish.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 18, 2019

I asked the Journal’s resident etymologist, columnist Ben Zimmer, about the earliest use of the term “echo chamber” in its modern sense.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 16, 2016

It’s often impossible to definitively determine a phrase’s linguistic birthplace, but based on the digging of etymologist Barry Popik, the phrase seems to have originated in the graffiti community of Oakland, California.

From Slate

We have picked out a few instances in which we think Mr. Wedgwood demonstrably mistaken, because they show the temptation which is ever lying in wait to lead the theoretical etymologist astray.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 34, August, 1860 by Various