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

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’m no etymologist; I don’t know when that exclamation point became a question mark and was wrapped in sarcasm.

From New York Times • Oct. 1, 2012

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

These efforts are doubtless of high interest to the etymologist, but the difficulties of the task are at present too great, and in any case I am not the man to undertake it.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, April 23, 1919 by Various