Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Etymologists Corner

On the collective literary blog Blood and Ink (I should tell you that I am a contributor) there is a new writer, Elijah Brubaker, who posts a regular piece called "The Etymologists Corner." Etymology is defined by Webster as:

1 : the history of a linguistic form (as a word) shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found, by tracing its transmission from one language to another, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages, or by tracing it and its cognates to a common ancestral form in an ancestral language
2 : a branch of linguistics concerned with etymologies

Now this might sound like dull reading, but Elijah Brubaker is a very good writer who shares his thoughts and knowledge about words in clear and thought-provoking prose. And as writers and book lovers, isn't it the word that really captures our heart? The right word at the right moment, that's what great literature is.

2 comments:

Ray Succre said...

Hi Terena, Ray here. I'm also one of the contributors at Blood and Ink. The Etymologist's Corner is quite interesting, and I look forward to seeing more of it, for sure. The Etymologist's Corner isn't written by Elijah, however, but is a contribution of newcomer Andrew King. Thanks for taking part. I really enjoyed your Social Networking post.

Andrew David King said...

Hi Terena,

This is Andrew David King, author of Etymologist's Corner. Thanks for issuing the correction about who authors the articles. I'm really glad you like them! I just noticed this post here today.