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.

As the etymologist Anatoly Liberman has pointed out, in its earliest forms, haga, hegg and hegge, the word meant “enclosure” or “yard,” especially the residence of a feudal lord.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 21, 2026

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

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

His profundity as an etymologist may be gathered from his analysis of cadaver: ca-ro, da-ta, ver-mibus.

From Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 2 of 3) Essay 4: Joseph de Maistre by Morley, John