Questions about etymology, i.e. the origin and history of a word. Use this tag for questions regarding the origin of single words. If your question is about the origin and history of a phrase, an idiom or a proverb, please use the tag "phrase-origin".
Etymology concerns the history of a word, its origins, and how its form and meaning have been changing over time.
If your question is about the origin and history of a phrase, an idiom or a proverb, please use the phrase-origin tag instead.
If you are asking about the history or past life of a word or phrase, as opposed to the origin of the word or phrase, please use the history tag instead.
If you are asking about the change of a borrowed word in comparison with its foreign roots, consider adding the foreign-words tag, as well as a specific language-related tag, such as english-comparison, latin, or greek.
