methodology definition etymology

COMING SOON:

Claim a free copy of this 620-page vocabulary building workbook

approach,plan,practice,strategy

eb68db_7203d90e20f147e99f522f8637911ed4.mp3

system, improvisation, randomness, guesswork

framework,modus-operandi,procedure,process,protocol,system,technique

methodology

Dictionary definition of methodology

The systematic and theoretical principles, practices, and procedures that are used in a particular field of study or research. "The organization implemented a new sales methodology to improve customer engagement."

• X (Twitter)

Detailed meaning of methodology

It encompasses the overall approach or framework employed to investigate, analyze, and solve problems within a specific discipline or domain. Methodology outlines the methods, techniques, tools, and strategies employed to gather, interpret, and evaluate data or information. It involves the systematic planning, design, and execution of research or investigative activities to achieve specific objectives. Methodology is crucial in maintaining rigor, accuracy, and consistency in various areas such as scientific research, social sciences, market research, and academic studies. It provides a structured and organized way to conduct investigations, generate reliable results, and ensure the validity and reliability of the findings. A well-defined methodology helps researchers and practitioners navigate the process of inquiry and inquiry and enhances the credibility and reproducibility of their work.

Example sentences of methodology

1. The researcher employed a rigorous methodology to collect and analyze the data. 2. The team followed a systematic methodology to develop the software. 3. The study's methodology involved conducting surveys and interviews with participants. 4. The professor emphasized the importance of understanding research methodology in the social sciences. 5. The company adopted an agile methodology for project management. 6. The methodology used in the experiment ensured accurate and reliable results.

History and etymology of methodology

The noun 'methodology' draws its etymological roots from the Greek word 'methodologia,' where 'meta' signifies 'beyond' or 'transcending,' and 'logos' represents 'word,' 'study,' or 'discourse.' When dissecting its etymology, we discern that 'methodology' encompasses the systematic and theoretical principles, practices, and procedures that extend beyond mere words or discourse within a specific field of study or research. It implies a comprehensive and structured framework that transcends mere discussion, underlining the importance of a well-organized approach to scholarly inquiry and research in various domains.

Find the meaning of methodology

Continue Quiz

Further usage examples of methodology

1. The historian employed a comparative methodology to analyze historical events. 2. The methodology of the study was peer-reviewed to ensure its validity. 3. The artist's creative methodology involved a combination of traditional and digital techniques. 4. The researcher explained the sampling methodology used to select participants for the study. 5. The scientist published a paper outlining the methodology and findings of their research. 6. The researcher explained the methodology used in the study to ensure transparency. 7. The company adopted a new marketing methodology to target a wider audience. 8. The teacher implemented a student-centered methodology to promote active learning. 9. The software developer followed an agile methodology to improve product development efficiency. 10. The historian questioned the methodology employed by previous scholars in interpreting historical events. 11. The psychologist developed a unique methodology for assessing cognitive abilities in children. 12. The consultant presented a comprehensive methodology for streamlining business operations. 13. The archaeologist used a meticulous excavation methodology to preserve artifacts. 14. The journalist investigated the validity of the survey methodology used in the report. 15. The artist embraced a mixed-media methodology, combining different art forms in their work. 16. The coach employed a data-driven methodology to analyze player performance and make strategic decisions. 17. The quality assurance team implemented a rigorous testing methodology to ensure product reliability. 18. The economist proposed a new methodology for measuring economic growth in emerging markets. 19. The linguist conducted field research using ethnographic methodology to study language evolution. 20. The project manager outlined a clear methodology for executing the construction project. 21. The philosopher critically examined the philosophical methodologies employed by different schools of thought. 22. The statistician devised a sampling methodology to ensure representative data collection. 23. The educational researcher developed a quantitative methodology to measure learning outcomes. 24. The sociologist employed qualitative research methodologies, conducting interviews and observations. 25. The environmental scientist adopted a multidisciplinary methodology to assess the impact of pollution.

Quiz categories containing methodology

Multiple Choice

Opposite Words

Same/different

Spelling Bee

• Trending words:

A Word or Two

IMMODEST DISPOSAL

Chile con Frontation

methodology

Questions about grammar and vocabulary?

Find the answers with Practical English Usage online, your indispensable guide to problems in English.

Nearby words

Words and phrases

Personal account.

• Access or purchase personal subscriptions
• Get our newsletter
• Save searches
• Set display preferences

Institutional access

Sign in with library card

Sign in with username / password

Recommend to your librarian

Institutional account management

Sign in as administrator on Oxford Academic

method noun

• Hide all quotations

What does the noun method mean?

There are 22 meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun method , 11 of which are labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

method has developed meanings and uses in subjects including

How common is the noun method ?

How is the noun method pronounced, british english, u.s. english, where does the noun method come from.

Earliest known use

Middle English

The earliest known use of the noun method is in the Middle English period (1150—1500).

OED's earliest evidence for method is from before 1425, in Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie .

method is a borrowing from Latin.

Etymons: Latin methodus .

Nearby entries

• methionate, n. 1853–
• methionic, adj. 1842–
• methionine, n. 1928–
• methionine-enkephalin, n. 1975–
• methionyl, n.¹ 1924–
• methionyl, n.² 1939–
• methisazone, n. 1964–
• methium, n. ?1608–
• metho, n.¹ 1933–
• Metho, adj. & n.² 1940–
• method, n. ?a1425–
• method, v. 1607–40
• method-act, v. 1970–
• method-acted, adj. 1960–
• method acting, n. 1956–
• method actor, n. 1955–
• méthode champenoise, n. 1928–
• Methodenstreit, n. 1893–
• methodian, n. 1612
• methodic, adj. & n. ?1541–
• methodical, adj. 1570–

Thank you for visiting Oxford English Dictionary

To continue reading, please sign in below or purchase a subscription. After purchasing, please sign in below to access the content.

Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for method, n..

method, n. was revised in December 2001.

method, n. was last modified in March 2024.

oed.com is a living text, updated every three months. Modifications may include:

• further revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into method, n. in March 2024.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1906)

• Find out more

OED Second Edition (1989)

• View method, n. in OED Second Edition

Please submit your feedback for method, n.

Please include your email address if you are happy to be contacted about your feedback. OUP will not use this email address for any other purpose.

Citation details

Factsheet for method, n., browse entry.

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Definition of methodology – Learner’s Dictionary

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

(Definition of methodology from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Translations of methodology

Get a quick, free translation!

Word of the Day

call centre

a large office in which a company's employees provide information to its customers, or sell or advertise its goods or services, by phone

Varied and diverse (Talking about differences, Part 1)

Learn more with +Plus

• Recent and Recommended {{#preferredDictionaries}} {{name}} {{/preferredDictionaries}}
• Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
• Grammar and thesaurus Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English Grammar Thesaurus
• Pronunciation British and American pronunciations with audio English Pronunciation
• English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
• English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
• English–Dutch Dutch–English
• English–French French–English
• English–German German–English
• English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
• English–Italian Italian–English
• English–Japanese Japanese–English
• English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
• English–Polish Polish–English
• English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
• English–Spanish Spanish–English
• English–Swedish Swedish–English
• Dictionary +Plus Word Lists
• Learner’s Dictionary    Noun
• Translations
• All translations

To add methodology to a word list please sign up or log in.

Add methodology to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

{{message}}

Something went wrong.

There was a problem sending your report.

• Search Menu
• Browse content in Arts and Humanities
• Browse content in Archaeology
• Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Archaeology
• Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
• Archaeology by Region
• Archaeology of Religion
• Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
• Biblical Archaeology
• Contemporary and Public Archaeology
• Environmental Archaeology
• Historical Archaeology
• History and Theory of Archaeology
• Industrial Archaeology
• Landscape Archaeology
• Mortuary Archaeology
• Prehistoric Archaeology
• Underwater Archaeology
• Urban Archaeology
• Zooarchaeology
• Browse content in Architecture
• Architectural Structure and Design
• History of Architecture
• Residential and Domestic Buildings
• Theory of Architecture
• Browse content in Art
• Art Subjects and Themes
• History of Art
• Industrial and Commercial Art
• Theory of Art
• Biographical Studies
• Byzantine Studies
• Browse content in Classical Studies
• Classical Literature
• Classical Reception
• Classical History
• Classical Philosophy
• Classical Mythology
• Classical Art and Architecture
• Classical Oratory and Rhetoric
• Greek and Roman Papyrology
• Greek and Roman Archaeology
• Greek and Roman Epigraphy
• Greek and Roman Law
• Late Antiquity
• Religion in the Ancient World
• Digital Humanities
• Browse content in History
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Diplomatic History
• Environmental History
• Genealogy, Heraldry, Names, and Honours
• Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
• Historical Geography
• History by Period
• History of Emotions
• History of Agriculture
• History of Education
• History of Gender and Sexuality
• Industrial History
• Intellectual History
• International History
• Labour History
• Legal and Constitutional History
• Local and Family History
• Maritime History
• Military History
• National Liberation and Post-Colonialism
• Oral History
• Political History
• Public History
• Regional and National History
• Revolutions and Rebellions
• Slavery and Abolition of Slavery
• Social and Cultural History
• Theory, Methods, and Historiography
• Urban History
• World History
• Browse content in Language Teaching and Learning
• Language Learning (Specific Skills)
• Language Teaching Theory and Methods
• Browse content in Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Forensic Linguistics
• Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
• Historical and Diachronic Linguistics
• History of English
• Language Evolution
• Language Reference
• Language Variation
• Language Families
• Language Acquisition
• Lexicography
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Linguistic Theories
• Linguistic Typology
• Phonetics and Phonology
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Translation and Interpretation
• Writing Systems
• Browse content in Literature
• Bibliography
• Children's Literature Studies
• Literary Studies (Romanticism)
• Literary Studies (American)
• Literary Studies (Modernism)
• Literary Studies (Asian)
• Literary Studies (European)
• Literary Studies (Eco-criticism)
• Literary Studies - World
• Literary Studies (1500 to 1800)
• Literary Studies (19th Century)
• Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)
• Literary Studies (African American Literature)
• Literary Studies (British and Irish)
• Literary Studies (Early and Medieval)
• Literary Studies (Fiction, Novelists, and Prose Writers)
• Literary Studies (Gender Studies)
• Literary Studies (Graphic Novels)
• Literary Studies (History of the Book)
• Literary Studies (Plays and Playwrights)
• Literary Studies (Poetry and Poets)
• Literary Studies (Postcolonial Literature)
• Literary Studies (Queer Studies)
• Literary Studies (Science Fiction)
• Literary Studies (Travel Literature)
• Literary Studies (War Literature)
• Literary Studies (Women's Writing)
• Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
• Mythology and Folklore
• Shakespeare Studies and Criticism
• Browse content in Media Studies
• Browse content in Music
• Applied Music
• Dance and Music
• Ethics in Music
• Ethnomusicology
• Gender and Sexuality in Music
• Medicine and Music
• Music Cultures
• Music and Media
• Music and Culture
• Music and Religion
• Music Education and Pedagogy
• Music Theory and Analysis
• Musical Scores, Lyrics, and Libretti
• Musical Structures, Styles, and Techniques
• Musicology and Music History
• Performance Practice and Studies
• Race and Ethnicity in Music
• Sound Studies
• Browse content in Performing Arts
• Browse content in Philosophy
• Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
• Epistemology
• Feminist Philosophy
• History of Western Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Moral Philosophy
• Non-Western Philosophy
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Perception
• Philosophy of Action
• Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
• Practical Ethics
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Browse content in Religion
• Biblical Studies
• Christianity
• East Asian Religions
• History of Religion
• Judaism and Jewish Studies
• Qumran Studies
• Religion and Education
• Religion and Health
• Religion and Politics
• Religion and Science
• Religion and Law
• Religion and Art, Literature, and Music
• Religious Studies
• Browse content in Society and Culture
• Cookery, Food, and Drink
• Cultural Studies
• Customs and Traditions
• Ethical Issues and Debates
• Hobbies, Games, Arts and Crafts
• Lifestyle, Home, and Garden
• Natural world, Country Life, and Pets
• Popular Beliefs and Controversial Knowledge
• Sports and Outdoor Recreation
• Technology and Society
• Travel and Holiday
• Visual Culture
• Browse content in Law
• Arbitration
• Browse content in Company and Commercial Law
• Commercial Law
• Company Law
• Browse content in Comparative Law
• Systems of Law
• Competition Law
• Browse content in Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Government Powers
• Judicial Review
• Local Government Law
• Military and Defence Law
• Parliamentary and Legislative Practice
• Construction Law
• Contract Law
• Browse content in Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure
• Criminal Evidence Law
• Sentencing and Punishment
• Employment and Labour Law
• Environment and Energy Law
• Browse content in Financial Law
• Banking Law
• Insolvency Law
• History of Law
• Human Rights and Immigration
• Intellectual Property Law
• Browse content in International Law
• Private International Law and Conflict of Laws
• Public International Law
• IT and Communications Law
• Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
• Law and Society
• Law and Politics
• Browse content in Legal System and Practice
• Courts and Procedure
• Legal Skills and Practice
• Primary Sources of Law
• Regulation of Legal Profession
• Medical and Healthcare Law
• Browse content in Policing
• Criminal Investigation and Detection
• Police and Security Services
• Police Procedure and Law
• Police Regional Planning
• Browse content in Property Law
• Personal Property Law
• Study and Revision
• Terrorism and National Security Law
• Browse content in Trusts Law
• Wills and Probate or Succession
• Browse content in Medicine and Health
• Browse content in Allied Health Professions
• Arts Therapies
• Clinical Science
• Dietetics and Nutrition
• Occupational Therapy
• Operating Department Practice
• Physiotherapy
• Radiography
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Browse content in Anaesthetics
• General Anaesthesia
• Neuroanaesthesia
• Clinical Neuroscience
• Browse content in Clinical Medicine
• Acute Medicine
• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Clinical Genetics
• Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology and Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• Genito-urinary Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Toxicology
• Medical Oncology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Medicine
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology
• Rheumatology
• Sleep Medicine
• Sports and Exercise Medicine
• Community Medical Services
• Critical Care
• Emergency Medicine
• Forensic Medicine
• Haematology
• History of Medicine
• Browse content in Medical Skills
• Clinical Skills
• Communication Skills
• Nursing Skills
• Surgical Skills
• Medical Ethics
• Browse content in Medical Dentistry
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Paediatric Dentistry
• Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics
• Surgical Dentistry
• Medical Statistics and Methodology
• Browse content in Neurology
• Clinical Neurophysiology
• Neuropathology
• Nursing Studies
• Browse content in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Gynaecology
• Occupational Medicine
• Ophthalmology
• Otolaryngology (ENT)
• Browse content in Paediatrics
• Neonatology
• Browse content in Pathology
• Chemical Pathology
• Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics
• Histopathology
• Medical Microbiology and Virology
• Patient Education and Information
• Browse content in Pharmacology
• Psychopharmacology
• Browse content in Popular Health
• Caring for Others
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Self-help and Personal Development
• Browse content in Preclinical Medicine
• Cell Biology
• Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Reproduction, Growth and Development
• Primary Care
• Professional Development in Medicine
• Browse content in Psychiatry
• Addiction Medicine
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Forensic Psychiatry
• Learning Disabilities
• Old Age Psychiatry
• Psychotherapy
• Browse content in Public Health and Epidemiology
• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Browse content in Radiology
• Clinical Radiology
• Interventional Radiology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiation Oncology
• Reproductive Medicine
• Browse content in Surgery
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Gastro-intestinal and Colorectal Surgery
• General Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Paediatric Surgery
• Peri-operative Care
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• Transplant Surgery
• Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
• Vascular Surgery
• Browse content in Science and Mathematics
• Browse content in Biological Sciences
• Aquatic Biology
• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology and Conservation
• Evolutionary Biology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Microbiology
• Molecular and Cell Biology
• Natural History
• Plant Sciences and Forestry
• Research Methods in Life Sciences
• Structural Biology
• Systems Biology
• Zoology and Animal Sciences
• Browse content in Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Computational Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Environmental Chemistry
• Industrial Chemistry
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Materials Chemistry
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Mineralogy and Gems
• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Polymer Chemistry
• Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry
• Browse content in Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Architecture and Logic Design
• Game Studies
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Mathematical Theory of Computation
• Programming Languages
• Software Engineering
• Systems Analysis and Design
• Virtual Reality
• Browse content in Computing
• Business Applications
• Computer Games
• Computer Security
• Computer Networking and Communications
• Digital Lifestyle
• Graphical and Digital Media Applications
• Operating Systems
• Browse content in Earth Sciences and Geography
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Environmental Geography
• Geology and the Lithosphere
• Maps and Map-making
• Meteorology and Climatology
• Oceanography and Hydrology
• Palaeontology
• Physical Geography and Topography
• Regional Geography
• Soil Science
• Urban Geography
• Browse content in Engineering and Technology
• Agriculture and Farming
• Biological Engineering
• Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Building
• Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Energy Technology
• Engineering (General)
• Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology
• History of Engineering and Technology
• Mechanical Engineering and Materials
• Technology of Industrial Chemistry
• Transport Technology and Trades
• Browse content in Environmental Science
• Applied Ecology (Environmental Science)
• Conservation of the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Environmental Sustainability
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Environmental Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Environmental Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environmental Science)
• Nuclear Issues (Environmental Science)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Environmental Science)
• History of Science and Technology
• Browse content in Materials Science
• Ceramics and Glasses
• Composite Materials
• Metals, Alloying, and Corrosion
• Nanotechnology
• Browse content in Mathematics
• Applied Mathematics
• Biomathematics and Statistics
• History of Mathematics
• Mathematical Education
• Mathematical Finance
• Mathematical Analysis
• Numerical and Computational Mathematics
• Probability and Statistics
• Pure Mathematics
• Browse content in Neuroscience
• Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
• Development of the Nervous System
• Disorders of the Nervous System
• History of Neuroscience
• Invertebrate Neurobiology
• Molecular and Cellular Systems
• Neuroendocrinology and Autonomic Nervous System
• Neuroscientific Techniques
• Sensory and Motor Systems
• Browse content in Physics
• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Biological and Medical Physics
• Classical Mechanics
• Computational Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Electromagnetism, Optics, and Acoustics
• History of Physics
• Mathematical and Statistical Physics
• Measurement Science
• Nuclear Physics
• Particles and Fields
• Plasma Physics
• Quantum Physics
• Relativity and Gravitation
• Semiconductor and Mesoscopic Physics
• Browse content in Psychology
• Affective Sciences
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Criminal and Forensic Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Health Psychology
• History and Systems in Psychology
• Music Psychology
• Neuropsychology
• Organizational Psychology
• Psychological Assessment and Testing
• Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction
• Psychology Professional Development and Training
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Browse content in Social Sciences
• Browse content in Anthropology
• Anthropology of Religion
• Human Evolution
• Medical Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology
• Regional Anthropology
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Theory and Practice of Anthropology
• Browse content in Business and Management
• Business Ethics
• Business History
• Business Strategy
• Business and Technology
• Business and Government
• Business and the Environment
• Comparative Management
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Entrepreneurship
• Health Management
• Human Resource Management
• Industrial and Employment Relations
• Industry Studies
• Information and Communication Technologies
• International Business
• Knowledge Management
• Management and Management Techniques
• Operations Management
• Organizational Theory and Behaviour
• Pensions and Pension Management
• Public and Nonprofit Management
• Strategic Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Browse content in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice
• Criminology
• Forms of Crime
• International and Comparative Criminology
• Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
• Development Studies
• Browse content in Economics
• Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics
• Asian Economics
• Behavioural Finance
• Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics
• Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
• Economic History
• Economic Methodology
• Economic Systems
• Economic Development and Growth
• Financial Markets
• Financial Institutions and Services
• General Economics and Teaching
• Health, Education, and Welfare
• History of Economic Thought
• International Economics
• Labour and Demographic Economics
• Law and Economics
• Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
• Microeconomics
• Public Economics
• Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
• Welfare Economics
• Browse content in Education
• Adult Education and Continuous Learning
• Care and Counselling of Students
• Early Childhood and Elementary Education
• Educational Equipment and Technology
• Educational Strategies and Policy
• Higher and Further Education
• Organization and Management of Education
• Philosophy and Theory of Education
• Schools Studies
• Secondary Education
• Teaching of a Specific Subject
• Teaching of Specific Groups and Special Educational Needs
• Teaching Skills and Techniques
• Browse content in Environment
• Applied Ecology (Social Science)
• Climate Change
• Conservation of the Environment (Social Science)
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Social Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environment)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Social Science)
• Browse content in Human Geography
• Cultural Geography
• Economic Geography
• Political Geography
• Browse content in Interdisciplinary Studies
• Communication Studies
• Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences
• Browse content in Politics
• African Politics
• Asian Politics
• Chinese Politics
• Comparative Politics
• Conflict Politics
• Elections and Electoral Studies
• Environmental Politics
• European Union
• Foreign Policy
• Gender and Politics
• Human Rights and Politics
• Indian Politics
• International Relations
• International Organization (Politics)
• International Political Economy
• Irish Politics
• Latin American Politics
• Middle Eastern Politics
• Political Behaviour
• Political Economy
• Political Institutions
• Political Theory
• Political Methodology
• Political Communication
• Political Philosophy
• Political Sociology
• Politics and Law
• Public Policy
• Public Administration
• Quantitative Political Methodology
• Regional Political Studies
• Russian Politics
• Security Studies
• State and Local Government
• UK Politics
• US Politics
• Browse content in Regional and Area Studies
• African Studies
• Asian Studies
• East Asian Studies
• Japanese Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Native American Studies
• Scottish Studies
• Browse content in Research and Information
• Research Methods
• Browse content in Social Work
• Addictions and Substance Misuse
• Adoption and Fostering
• Care of the Elderly
• Child and Adolescent Social Work
• Couple and Family Social Work
• Developmental and Physical Disabilities Social Work
• Direct Practice and Clinical Social Work
• Emergency Services
• Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
• International and Global Issues in Social Work
• Mental and Behavioural Health
• Social Justice and Human Rights
• Social Policy and Advocacy
• Social Work and Crime and Justice
• Social Work Macro Practice
• Social Work Practice Settings
• Social Work Research and Evidence-based Practice
• Welfare and Benefit Systems
• Browse content in Sociology
• Childhood Studies
• Community Development
• Comparative and Historical Sociology
• Economic Sociology
• Gender and Sexuality
• Gerontology and Ageing
• Health, Illness, and Medicine
• Marriage and the Family
• Migration Studies
• Occupations, Professions, and Work
• Organizations
• Population and Demography
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Theory
• Social Movements and Social Change
• Social Research and Statistics
• Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
• Sociology of Religion
• Sociology of Education
• Sport and Leisure
• Urban and Rural Studies
• Browse content in Warfare and Defence
• Defence Strategy, Planning, and Research
• Land Forces and Warfare
• Military Administration
• Military Life and Institutions
• Naval Forces and Warfare
• Other Warfare and Defence Issues
• Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
• Weapons and Equipment

• < Previous chapter
• Next chapter >

22 Etymology

Philip Durkin is Deputy Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. He has led the OED’s team of specialist etymology editors since the late 1990s. His research interests include etymology, the history of the English language and of the English lexicon, language contact, medieval multilingualism, and approaches to historical lexicography. His publications include The Oxford Guide to Etymology (OUP 2009) and Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English (OUP 2014).

• Published: 03 March 2014
• Cite Icon Cite
• Permissions Icon Permissions

Etymology is an essential tool in tracing the origin and development of individual words. It is also indispensable for identifying, from a diachronic perspective, what the individual words of a language are, e.g. whether file ‘type of metal tool’ and file ‘set of documents’ share a common history or show different origins. However, words do not develop in isolation from one another. In extreme cases, complete lexical merger or lexical split can occur; such events can challenge the identification of words as entities with a single, discrete history. Etymological method depends on an interaction between arguments based on word form and word meaning. Regular sound changes are a cornerstone of etymology. Analysis of regular sound correspondences between languages, resulting from the operation of sound changes earlier than the surviving written records, is at the heart of the historical comparative method, by which proto-languages such as Indo-European have been identified.

22.1 Introduction: etymology and words

A topic that is crucial to any study of words is how we decide whether we are dealing with two different words or with a single word. Essentially, this is a matter of distinguishing between homonymy and polysemy. For instance, do file ‘type of metal tool’ and file ‘set of documents’ show two meanings of a single word (i.e. polysemy) or two different words which happen to be identical in pronunciation and spelling (i.e. homonymy)? This question will be approached differently depending on whether we adopt a synchronic or a diachronic perspective. From a synchronic perspective, what matters is whether we perceive a semantic link between the two words. Psycholinguistic experiments may even be conducted in order to measure the degree of association felt by speakers. Such approaches are outside the scope of this chapter. 1 From a diachronic perspective, what we most want to know is whether these two words of identical form share a common history, and if not, whether any influence of one word upon the other can be traced. These questions are answered by the application of etymology. In this particular example, the answer is quite categorical: the two words are of entirely separate origin (one is a word of native Germanic origin, the other a loanword from French; see further section 22.2 ), and there is no reason to suspect that either has exercised any influence on the other.

This chapter will look to give an overview of the core methods of etymology, i.e. how it is that we establish the separate histories of file ‘type of metal tool’ and file ‘set of documents’. It will also look closely at those areas where etymology can ask difficult questions about words as units in the diachronic study of the lexicon. Some words show a fairly simple linear progression from one stage in the history of a language to another, and there is no difficulty in saying that a word at one stage in the history of a language is the direct ancestor of a word in a later historical stage of the same language. In other cases things are much less simple. A single word in contemporary use may have resulted from multiple inputs from different sources, or a single word in an earlier stage in language history may have shown a process of historical split, giving rise ultimately to two quite distinct words in a later stage of the same language. Such phenomena, and the causes by which they arise, present many challenges for the assumption that we can always speak with confidence about ‘the history of a word’, and hence they will merit particular attention in this chapter.

22.2 A practical introduction to the core methods of etymology, through two short examples

Section 22.1 introduced the examples of modern English file ‘type of metal tool’ and file ‘set of documents’, and stated that from a diachronic perspective they are definitely two quite separate words: the first is part of the inherited Germanic vocabulary of English, while the second reflects a borrowing from French in the 16th century. It can further be stated that there is definitely no relationship between the Germanic word and the French one, and there are no grounds for supposing that the two English words have had any influence on one another during their history in English. All of this is established by applying the core methods of etymology, which this section will introduce by looking briefly at the histories of these two words. 2

Modern English file ‘type of metal tool’ has a well-documented and very simple history in English. The word existed already as fīl in the same meaning (though features of the referent may have changed, due to technological changes) in the earliest documented stage of the English language, Old English, and is also well attested in the Middle English period ( c .1150 –c .1500) and throughout the Modern English period (1500–). The word would have been pronounced /fiːl/ in Old English and Middle English; the modern diphthongal pronunciation /fʌɪl/ (with minor variation in different varieties of English) results from a regular sound change that affected /iː/ late in the Middle English period or very early in the Modern English period. This sound change is one of a series of changes in the pronunciation of vowels and diphthongs in English in this period, known collectively as the Great Vowel Shift (see further section 22.3 ).

The history of Modern English file ‘set of documents’ is a little more complicated, because semantic change as well as change in word form is involved. The word is first recorded in English in the early 16th century. It shows a borrowing of Middle French fil . The modern pronunciation shows that it must have been borrowed early enough to participate in the same development from /fiːl/ to /fʌɪl/ that is shown by the homonym file ‘type of metal tool’. The core meaning of the French word is ‘thread’ or sometimes ‘wire’. The earliest use of the word in English that is recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary refers to a wire, but specifically one on which papers and documents are strung for preservation and reference; the earliest example, from 1525, reads ‘Thapothecaries shall kepe the billis that they serue, vpon a fyle’, i.e. the apothecaries are to keep on a length of wire written records of the prescriptions that they have administered. From this beginning in English, the meaning of file developed by a process of metonymy from the wire on which a collection of records was kept (in later use, especially legal ones), to the set of records itself. This also explains why documents are described as being kept on file , or in earlier use upon (a) file .

22.3 Teasing out core etymological methods from these examples

The examples of file ‘type of metal tool’ and file ‘set of documents’ show the two main concerns of etymology: detecting and explaining change in word form, and detecting and explaining change in meaning. The histories of both words that I have set out here are well documented, but it is important to note that the historical narrative only emerges from interplay between the historical documents and etymology.

The word fīl exists in Old English and Middle English with the same meaning that file has in Modern English. A large mass of comparative and historical data tells us that Old English and Middle English fīl was pronounced /fiːl/. Observation of hundreds if not thousands of similar word histories tells us that as a result of one of the collection of changes we know as the Great Vowel Shift, a word that has /iː/ in Middle English will have /ʌɪ/ in contemporary (British) English pronunciation. The Great Vowel Shift consisted of a number of interrelated changes in the vowel system of English which extended from roughly the 15th century to the 18th, and which can be represented schematically as in Fig. 22.1 . (In fact, the modern quality of the diphthong in file probably results from later changes, but the initial diphthongization of /iː/ is a result of the Great Vowel Shift.) 3

The Great Vowel Shift (simplified).

Regular sound change of this type, affecting all sounds in a similar phonetic environment within a particular time period, is the most powerful explanatory tool available to an etymologist. Because of what we know about the history of English, based on etymological investigation of all of its lexis, we know that a word pronounced /fiːl/ in Old English and Middle English should be pronounced /fʌɪl/ in modern English. If it were not, we would have a problem with our historical account. Since it is, we do not. (See more on this issue below.)

As already explained, the same regular sound change that accounts for file ‘type of metal tool’ also accounts for the pronunciation history of file ‘set of documents’. This word additionally shows a rather dramatic semantic change, from ‘wire’ to ‘set of documents’. Because of our rich historical documentation for English, we can observe what has happened in detail. The explanation remains a hypothesis, but one about which there can be no reasonable doubt, because we can see all of the stages in the semantic history illustrated in contemporary documents, and because the semantic changes involved are well-known types: 4

Semantic Narrowing, From a Wire to Specifically a Wire on Which Paper Documents are Strung;

and then metonymy, from the wire on which a collection of records is kept, to the collection of records kept on the wire, and then semantic change mirroring technological change, as the records come to be stored by means other than hanging on a wire, and the word file comes to refer to any collection of paper documents;

and then further semantic change mirroring technological change, as the meaning becomes extended to documents (or now more typically a single document) in electronic form.

Precisely the same explanatory methods are used in attempts to construct etymological hypotheses where we have less data, and also for hypotheses that attempt to bridge large gaps in the historical record, or to project word histories back beyond the limits of the historical record. Regular sound change is by far the strongest explanatory tool in the armoury of an etymologist, because it tells us that a particular change should have occurred in a particular language (or dialect) at a particular time. The question of just how much regularity is shown by regular sound changes is a central one in historical linguistics, and one that has profound implications for etymology. Normally, most etymologists work with the assumption that the less data is available about a particular word history, the more important it is to ensure that general rules and tendencies apply. It is very poor methodology to hypothesize that a single word history may have shown a number of undocumented exceptions to otherwise regular sound changes in order to get from stage A to stage B.

Change in meaning is rather more of a problem for etymological reconstruction. General tendencies, such as metaphor, metonymy, narrowing, broadening, pejoration, or amelioration can be traced in countless word histories. The problem is that these changes rarely affect groups of words together. Certainly, we do not have any regular, period-specific changes such as ‘general late Middle English or Early Modern English semantic narrowing’, analogous to ‘late Middle English or Early Modern English diphthongization of /iː/’ which we can assume will have affected all words in a particular class in a particular period. For this reason, hypothesizing semantic histories is generally much more difficult than hypothesizing the form histories of words. In the case of file , we can get easily from the meaning ‘thread or wire’ to ‘set of documents’ because known tendencies in semantic change explain what we can see reflected in the historical record. Without the intervening historical record, if we knew only that fil means ‘thread or wire’ in Middle French and that file means ‘set of documents’ in modern English, it would be a brave and daring step to hypothesize a borrowing followed by this set of changes in order to explain this word history.

22.4 Comparison and reconstruction

The examples discussed so far have all been restricted to the history of English, except that in the case of file ‘set of documents’ it is assumed that Middle French fil ‘thread or wire’ was borrowed into late Middle English or Early Modern English. In this case, we are dealing with borrowing between two well-attested languages. We can see that fil ‘thread’ extends back into Old French (and clearly shows the continuation of a word in the parent language, Latin), and we can see that there is no earlier history of file ‘thread or wire’ in English; we also know that French and English were in close contact in this period, and that many words were borrowed. The situation becomes rather different if we push the history of both file ‘type of metal tool’ and file ‘set of documents’ back a little further. 5

As well as establishing word histories within languages, etymology can be employed to establish connections between words in different languages. These may be connections involving borrowing, as just illustrated, or they may be connections involving cognacy. This concept needs some explanation. One of the major findings of historical linguistics is that many present-day or historically documented languages can be identified as common descendants from earlier languages. Thus, French, Italian, Spanish, and the other Romance languages can all be traced as descendants from a common ancestor, Latin. Since Latin is amply attested in historical documents, the stages in the development can be traced in detail. The history of the Roman empire also gives us a crucial historical context in which to understand the circumstances of the wide geographical spread of Latin, and gives us some important hints about other languages that Latin was in contact with in different parts of the Empire. To focus on the level of an individual word, French fil can be seen to show the reflex, or direct linear development, of Latin fīlum ‘thread’. The same is true of Italian filo and Spanish hilo , and thus these are said to be cognates of French fil , showing a common descent from Latin fīlum . By contrast, French choisir ‘to choose’ does not show the reflex of a Latin word, but rather reflects a direct borrowing into French (or perhaps into the ancestor form of Vulgar Latin spoken in Gaul) from a Germanic language, probably in the context of the Frankish invasions of Gaul; the word is ultimately related to English choose .

By the application of what is termed the historical comparative method, many other such relationships of common descent have been identified. For instance, English can be identified as showing common descent with Frisian, Dutch, Low German, and High German; collectively they form the West Germanic branch of the Germanic language family. The relationships between the major members of the Germanic family can be reconstructed as in Fig. 22.2 . Proto-Germanic sits at the head of the Germanic languages, just as Latin sits at the head of the Romance languages. It is not directly attested, unlike Latin, but a great deal of its vocabulary, and of its phonology, morphology, and (to a lesser extent) its syntax can be reconstructed by comparison of its attested descendants. A great deal more information, and confirmation of much of what can be hypothesized from comparison within Germanic, comes from comparing the evidence of Germanic with the evidence for the much wider language family, Indo-European, to which it in turn belongs. Scholars working on Indo-European are very lucky, in that many separate branches have been identified, and some of them include languages that have very early surviving documentation (especially Hittite and Luvian), while others (especially Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin) have recorded histories that both go back a long way and extend over a very long period, with copious historical records. However, there are still limitations to how much of the vocabulary of proto-Indo-European can be reconstructed, and with what degree of confidence. 6 (Attempts to link Indo-European with other language families, in order to establish a shared linguistic descent from a common ancestor, are highly controversial, and not regarded as successful by most linguists working today.)

The major Germanic languages.

It is by application of this sort of methodology that we can be certain that some pairs of words, such as English care and Latin cūra ‘care’, or Latin deus and Greek theós ‘god’, are not related, in spite of their identical meaning and superficial similarity in form. Conversely, some pairs of words which show little formal or semantic similarity, such as English head and French chef ‘leader, boss’, can be shown to share a common origin.

In a small but very important set of cases, whole words can be clearly identified as direct reflexes of a single word in proto-Indo-European, rather than as developments from a shared root. For instance, father has a wide set of cognates in Germanic, including Old Frisian feder, fader , Old Saxon fadar , Old High German fater , Old Icelandic faðir , Gothic fadar (although, interestingly, this is a very rare word in Gothic, in which the more usual word for ‘father’ is atta ). Unlike in the case of file , we can also identify cognate words meaning ‘father’ in a wide range of languages from other branches of Indo-European, for instance Latin pater , ancient Greek πατήρ ( patḗr ), Sanskrit pitár -, Early Irish athir , Old Persian pitā , Tocharian A pācar . (Tocharian A and the related Tocharian B are the most easterly Indo-European languages, preserved in documents discovered in western China.) On the basis of these attested word forms, an Indo-European word meaning ‘father’ of approximately the form * ph 2 tér - is commonly reconstructed (the h 2 in the reconstruction represents a laryngeal sound assumed to have existed in Indo-European, which in this position can be understood as giving rise to the sound /ə/, hence probably /pəˈter/). The various attested forms can all be explained as arising from this same starting point, allowing for what is assumed about sound change in the pre-history of each language, and for assumptions about the morphology of Indo-European. Thus, the initial consonant /f/ in the English word again reflects the Grimm’s Law change * p > * f in the common ancestor of the Germanic languages. (The history of the medial consonant is rather more complex, involving a further change known as Verner’s Law, the discovery of which was itself an important stage in the development of the notion of regular sound change, since it explained a set of apparent exceptions to Grimm’s Law.)

Similarly, for ‘mother’, English mother has cognates in West Germanic and North Germanic (not though in Gothic, which has aiþei ), including: Old Frisian mōder , Old Saxon mōdar , Old High German muoter , Old Icelandic móðir . Cognates in other branches of Indo-European include: classical Latin māter , ancient Greek μήτηρ , Sanskrit mātar -, Early Irish māthir , Avestan mātar -, Tocharian A mācar . On the basis of these attested word forms, an Indo-European word meaning ‘mother’ of approximately the form * máh 2 ter - or perhaps * méh 2 ter - is commonly reconstructed.

It is almost certainly not accidental that the reconstructed words meaning ‘father’ and ‘mother’ have the sequence of sounds - ter - in common. This is found also in the reconstructed Indo-European forms assumed to lie ultimately behind English brother and daughter (but not sister , in which the - t- is of later origin, perhaps by analogy with the other words). Most scholars are therefore happy to recognize the existence of an element - ter - involved in forming words denoting kinship relationships, although opinions differ on the origin of this element and its possible connections with other suffixes in Indo-European. This leaves open the question of what the etymologies of the first elements of mother and father are. One suggestion is that both words may originate as forms suffixed in - ter - on the syllables /ma/ or /pa/ that are typical of infant vocalization, and which are probably reflected by English mama and papa , as well as forms in a wide variety of languages worldwide. However, there are other viable suggestions to explain the origin of both words.

This discussion has pushed several words back far beyond the limits of the historical record. This is is possible because we have a rich and early historical record for so many Indo-European languages. The historical record for many languages is much less rich, and this can impose severe limits on etymological research (although there have been significant achievements in areas such as the study of proto-Bantu). In addition, there are many languages that cannot be linked with large language families like Indo-European; some languages are (to the best of present knowledge) complete isolates (e.g., in the view of most scholars, Basque or Korean), while many others can only be linked securely with one or two other languages (e.g. Japanese and the related languages of the Ryukyu Islands). Of course, this does not mean that the whole of the lexis of such languages is necessarily unrelated to words found in other languages; the lexis of Japanese, for instance, contains large numbers of loanwords, including a very large contribution from Chinese during the medieval period, and a large recent contribution from English, such as terebi ‘television’ or depāto ‘department store’. Both of these words show accommodation to the phonological system of Japanese, as well as clipping (i.e. shortening of the word form), which is common in such loanwords. Such words or clipped elements of such words may also form new words in Japanese; for instance the second element of the word karaoke is a clipping of ōkesutara , borrowed from English orchestra (the first element is Japanese kara ‘empty’).

22.5 Words of unknown or uncertain etymology

As already seen, English has a richly documented and well-studied history and belongs to an extended language family many members of which are unusually well documented over a very long history. However, even in English there are many words that defy satisfactory etymological explanation. Some words go back to Old English, but no secure connections can be established with words in other Germanic languages, nor can a donor be identified for a loanword etymology. Some examples (all investigated recently for the new edition of the Oxford English Dictionary ) include adze, neap (tide), to quake (which could just be an expressive formation), or (all first attested in late Old English) plot, privet , or dog, hog, pig (these last three probably bear some relationship to one another, but exactly what is less clear). Some words of unknown etymology first recorded in Middle English include badge, big, boy, girl, nape, nook, to pore, to pout, prawn . Some more recent examples include to prod (first attested 1535), quirk (1565), prat (1567), quandary (1576), to puzzle ( c. 1595), pimp (1600), pun (1644). 7 For some of these words numerous etymological explanations have been suggested, but none has yet met with general acceptance.

In each of these cases there is relatively little doubt that we are dealing with a single coherent word history, but we are simply unable to explain its ulterior history. A slightly different kind of case is exemplified by queer . This is recorded from 1513 in the meaning defined by OED as ‘strange, odd, peculiar, eccentric’, and there is little doubt that most current senses developed from this beginning, including the modern use in the meaning ‘homosexual’. Its origin is uncertain; borrowing from German quer ‘transverse, oblique, crosswise, at right angles’ is a possibility, but the semantic correspondence is not exact, and figurative uses of the German word, such as ‘(of a person) peculiar’, are first attested much later than the English word. The interesting further complication in the case of queer is that in contemporary English queer also occurs in criminals’ slang in the meaning ‘of coins or banknotes: counterfeit, forged’. This may seem an unsurprising or at least plausible semantic development from ‘strange, odd’, but the difficulty is that this use (first recorded in 1740) seems to have developed from a meaning ‘bad; contemptible, worthless; untrustworthy; disreputable’, that is first recorded in 1567, and in early use this always shows spellings of the type quire . It therefore seems that in the 16th century there may have been two distinct words, queer ‘strange, odd, peculiar, eccentric’ and (in criminals’ slang) quire ‘bad; contemptible, worthless; untrustworthy; disreputable’. The one may have originated as a variant of the other, but there appears to be no formal overlap in the first century or so of co-existence of the two words. In the late 17th century, quire ‘bad; contemptible, worthless; untrustworthy; disreputable’ begins to appear in the spelling queer , suggesting a lowered vowel that is confirmed by the modern pronunciation. This change in form may well be the result of formal association with queer ‘strange, odd, peculiar, eccentric’, on the grounds of similarity of form and semantic proximity (what is odd often being deemed bad, etc.). A very difficult question is whether modern English has one word or two: quire , later queer ‘bad; contemptible, worthless; untrustworthy; disreputable’ seems the direct antecedent of queer ‘of coins or banknotes: counterfeit, forged’, but, if association with queer ‘strange, odd, peculiar, eccentric’ is what has caused an irregular change in word form from quire to queer , can we be certain that the two words have not become completely conflated for modern English speakers? An idiom such as as queer as a nine bob note may be construed by some speakers as simply showing the meaning ‘peculiar’ rather than specifically ‘counterfeit’. Certainly, the case is much more difficult than that of file ‘type of metal tool’ and file ‘set of documents’, where the intuition that there are two unrelated meanings, hence homonymy, coincides perfectly with the historical perspective. 8

The remainder of this chapter will look at some other types of scenario in which careful investigation of word histories by etymological methods presents tensions for the conception of the lexicon as consisting of a set of entirely discrete words with separate histories. By careful application of etymology, it is often possible to detect the grey areas, where lexical split or merger is in progress, either diachronically between different stages in the historical development of a language, or synchronically between different varieties of language.

22.6 Lexical merger and lexical split, and other types of ‘messiness’ in the histories of words

Proving that lexical merger has occurred can present difficulties for etymological-historical methodology. For instance, Old English has two distinct verbs in the meanings (intransitive) ‘to melt, become liquid’ and (transitive) ‘to cause to melt, to make liquid’. The first is a strong verb, meltan , with principal parts: present stem melt -, past tense (1st and 3rd person singular) mealt , past tense (plural) multon , and past participle gemolten . The second is a weak verb, of which the infinitive is either meltan or mieltan in different dialects of Old English, but which has past tense and past participle formed by a dental suffix. The forms of this verb that are actually recorded in Old English typically show syncopation of the dental suffix, e.g. past tense (1st and 3rd person singular) mielte and past participle mielt , but forms without syncopation of the dental suffix are also found, e.g. past participle gemælted . The two words are ultimately developed from the same Germanic base, and are ultimately cognate with words in other branches of Indo-European, the most direct correspondence being with ancient Greek μέλδειν ( méldein ) ‘to melt’. In modern English both sets of meanings are realized by a regular, weak verb, melt , with past tense and past participle melted . (A descendant of the original strong past participle survives, however, in specialized meaning as the adjective molten designating liquefied metal or glass.) Modern English melt is clearly the descendant of either Old English meltan (strong) or meltan, mieltan (weak), but describing quite what has happened is a little more difficult. Many verbs that were strong in Old English have switched to showing weak inflections in later English; thus modern English melt could in formal terms show the direct descendant of meltan (strong), with change in declensional class. On the other hand, many verbs that typically showed syncope of the dental suffix after a stem ending in a dental consonant have become regularized to show final -ed in later English; hence modern English melt could equally show the direct descendant of meltan, mieltan (weak). We could hypothesize that the strong and weak verbs have merged in the later history of English, giving one merged modern English verb melt in both transitive and intransitive uses. However, proving that this has happened purely by etymological methodology is difficult: from the data I have presented so far, we may infer from semantic similarity that melt in the meanings (intransitive) ‘to melt’ and (transitive) ‘to cause to melt’ shows a single polysemous lexeme, but etymological methodology alone does not rule out the alternative scenario where there is a continuous history of two verbs, melt 1 (intransitive) ‘to melt’ and melt 2 (transitive) ‘to cause to melt’ which have simply become homonyms in modern English. Since English has a particularly richly documented history, we can look at what sort of verbal morphology is found in Middle English. Here, as well as uses of weak forms such as melted in meanings of the old strong verb meltan (intransitive) ‘to melt’, we also find historically strong forms in transitive meanings, e.g. from Caxton ‘Saturne … malte and fyned gold and metalles’. In fact, the historical evidence when taken all together suggests a general confusion of forms in Middle English and Early Modern English: thus, in a 16th-century text we find ‘The Jewes when they molted a golden calfe … did neuer thinke that to be God’, with a past tense form molted that shows the weak past tense ending - ed but the stem vowel of the old strong past participle, used in a transitive meaning where the weak verb would have been expected historically. Thus the detailed historical data suggests strongly that merger has taken place; but without this level of detail the hypothesis of merger would be harder to support by historical methods alone. 9

Close study of word histories from historically well-attested languages suggests that processes of merger are in fact not uncommon. Reduction in the overall level of morphological variety, as shown for instance by the English verb system diachronically, is one common cause, as exemplified by melt . Another is where borrowing is found from more than one donor language. For instance, in the Middle English period English was in close contact with both French and Latin. Specifically, in the late Middle English period, English came to be used increasingly as a written language in contexts where either French or Latin or both had previously been used over a long period of time. In this context, many loanwords occur in English that could on formal grounds be from either French or Latin, and which show a complex set of borrowed meanings, which again could be explained by borrowing from either language. Examples include add, animal, information, problem, public . In some cases, particular form variants point strongly to input from one language rather than the other, or a particular meaning is found in French but not in Latin, or vice versa. Sometimes a particular meaning is attested earliest in a text that is translated directly from the one language, but it may be found a few years later in a text translated from the other. In most instances, the likeliest scenario seems to be that there has been input from both languages, reflecting multiple instances either of direct word borrowing or of semantic influence on an earlier loan; over time, multiple inputs have coalesced, to give semantically complex, polysemous words in modern English. 10

Demonstrating that lexical splits have occurred is generally a simpler task for etymological methodology, although pinpointing the precise point at which a split has occurred can be more difficult, especially since fine-grained historical data suggests that splits tend to diffuse gradually through a speaker group. For instance, modern English has two distinct words, ordinance and ordnance . The first is typically found in the meaning ‘an authoritative order’, and the second in specialized military meanings such as ‘artillery’ and ‘branch of government service dealing especially with military stores and materials’. Both words show the same starting point, Middle English ordenance, ordinance, ordnance , a borrowing from French, showing a wide range of meanings such as ‘decision made by a superior’, ‘ruling’, ‘arrangement in a certain order’, ‘provisions’, ‘legislative decree’, ‘machinery, engine’, ‘disposition of troops in battle’. In Middle English the forms with and without a medial vowel could be used in any of these meanings: the formal variation does not pattern significantly with the semantic variation. In course of time, the form without a medial vowel, ordnance , became usual in military senses, while the form ordinance became usual in general senses. Possibly what we have here is a situation where a pool of variants existed, and speakers in different social groups have selected different forms from within that pool of variants, ordnance having been the form that became usual within the military, but ordinance in most other groups using this word. Very gradually, as some meanings have fallen out of use and others have come to be used more or less exclusively with one word form or the other, a complete split has occurred, with ordinance and ordnance becoming established as distinct lexemes with different meanings. The time-frame over which this occurred appears to have been very long: the OED ’s evidence suggests that it is not complete before the 18th century, and even in contemporary English ordinance may occasionally be found in the military senses, although in formal use it is likely to be regarded as an error.

Similar splits may also be found that affect only the written form of a word, particularly in modern standard languages with well-established orthographic norms. For instance, modern English flour originated as a spelling variant of flower ; flour was perceived metaphorically as the ‘flower’ or finer portion of ground meal. The word flower is a Middle English borrowing from French, and it is found in the meaning ‘flour’ already in the 13th century; both meanings still appear under the single spelling flower in Johnson’s dictionary in 1755, although by this point some other written sources already distinguish clearly between the spellings flower and flour in the two meanings.

There are, however, instances of lexical split that are much less categorical. One such instance is shown by the modern English reflex(es) of Middle English poke ‘bag, small sack’. The word survives in this meaning in modern Standard English only in fossilized form in the idiom a pig in a poke (referring to something bought or accepted without prior inspection), but it remains in more general use in some regional varieties of English. Various other semantic developments ultimately from the same starting point survive in certain varieties of English. From the meaning ‘small bag or pouch worn on the person’ the narrowed meaning ‘a purse, a wallet, a pocketbook’ developed, although this is labelled by OED as being restricted to North American criminals’ slang; a further metonymic development from this, ‘a roll of banknotes; money; a supply or stash of money’, is labelled by OED as belonging to more general slang use. Metaphorical uses recorded as still current in different varieties of English included (in Scottish English) ‘a bag-shaped fishing net, a purse-net’, (in Scottish English and in the north of England) ‘an oedematous swelling on the neck of a sheep’, (in North America, chiefly in whaling) ‘a bag or bladder filled with air, used as a buoy or float’. Running alongside this splintering in meaning there are interesting patterns of formal variation: for instance, in Scottish English the form types pock and pouk occur as well as poke (reflecting phonological developments that are familiar from other words of similar shape), although these form variants do not appear to have become associated exclusively with particular meanings. In this instance, we can see that the etymological principle in use in a historical dictionary can effectively group all of this material together under a single dictionary headword poke , as showing a single point of origin, without any definitive split into different word forms employed in different meanings. However, what poke denotes will differ radically for different speakers of English depending on their membership of different speaker groups, and it is likely that if an individual speaker happens to be familiar with the meanings ‘money’ and ‘a bag or bladder filled with air’ he will be very unlikely to perceive any relationship between them, any more than between historically unrelated homonyms such as file ‘type of metal tool’ and file ‘set of documents’.

22.7 Conclusions

Etymology is an essential tool in tracing the historical origin and development of individual words, and in establishing word histories. Indeed, this could serve as a definition of etymology, broadly conceived. 11 Etymological method depends on an interaction between arguments based on word form and arguments based on word meaning. Regular sound changes are a cornerstone of etymological argument, especially when attempts are made to trace word histories far beyond the limits of the surviving written record. In a historical perspective, how we identify distinct word histories is heavily dependent on the application of etymology. As such, etymology can pose provocative questions about whether we can always identify complex words as coherent entities with a single, discrete history.

For discussion of these issues see Koskela (forthcoming) , and also Klepousniotou (2002) , Beretta et al. (2005) .

For fuller treatment of etymological methodology see Durkin (2009) . For some different perspectives see (with examples drawn chiefly from German) Seebold (1981) , (focussing purely on issues to do with the history and pre-history of English) Bammesberger (1984) , (focussing particularly on Romance languages and their coverage in etymological dictionaries) Malkiel (1993) , or (targeted at a more popular audience) Liberman (2005) .

On this and other sound changes discussed in this chapter see Durkin (2009) and further references given there. For a more detailed account of the Great Vowel Shift and an overview of the extensive literature on this topic see especially Lass (1999) .

For types of semantic change, see Geeraerts , this volume.

The etymologies presented in this chapter all draw on documentation from the standard etymological and historical dictionaries for each language involved. Listing all of the dictionaries concerned would be beyond the scope of this article. The etymological dictionary is one of the major outlets for etymological research; as well as advancing new ideas, etymological dictionaries typically summarize the main earlier hypotheses, taking note of data from the other major outlet for etymological research, articles in scholarly journals. On the typology and structure of etymological dictionaries see Buchi (forthcoming) and Malkiel (1975 , 1993 ).

For an excellent introduction to the Indo-European languages see Fortson (2009) . On the methodology for establishing the family see especially Clackson (2007) . For a very useful overview of some of the core reconstructed vocabulary of Indo-European see Mallory and Adams (2006) .

The frequency of words beginning with certain initial letters in these lists of examples reflects the fact that they have been drawn from the new edition of the OED currently in progress, in which the alphabetical sequence M to R is the largest continuous run of entries so far published.

For fuller discussion of this example see Durkin (2009 : 216–18).

For further discussion of this and of the examples of lexical split discussed later in this section, and for further examples, see Durkin (2009 : 79–88).

On words of this type see Durkin (2002) , Durkin (2008) , Durkin (forthcoming a).

On definitions of etymology see Alinei (1995) , Durkin (2009) .

• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Institutional account management
• Rights and permissions
• Get help with access
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Method etymology

English word method comes from Ancient Greek (to 1453) μετά, Ancient Greek (to 1453) ὁδός, and later Middle French (ca. 1400-1600) methode (Method; manner of doing something.)

Etymology of method

Detailed word origin of method, words with the same origin as method, descendants of μετά, descendants of ὁδός.

U speak Greek

• Most popular:
• autonomy definition
• lyric etymology
• Ironic Definition

But you don't know it

Etymology and Origin of the word Method

The word “method” originates from the Greek word “μέθοδος” (methodos), which is derived from “μετά” (meta) meaning “with,” “after,” or “beyond,” and “ὁδός” (hodos), meaning “way,” “road,” or “path.”

In ancient Greek, “methodos” referred to a pursuit, a way of inquiry, or a way of thinking and acting. The term was used to describe a systematic and orderly approach to an objective, emphasizing the process or path taken.

When the term was adopted into English in the late 14th century, it retained these connotations of a systematic or orderly procedure or approach. In modern usage, “method” generally refers to a particular procedure for accomplishing or approaching something, especially a systematic or established one.

Thus, the original Greek roots of “method” combine the ideas of “with” or “along a path” with “way” or “path,” emphasizing a systematic way of doing something or a procedure followed to achieve a specific end.

• Pingback: Empirical Evidence Explained: The Backbone of Scientific Research - U speak Greek

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

Related Articles

Catastrophe Definition: Unraveling the Meaning Behind Dramatic Disasters

Explore the etymology and multifaceted definition of ‘catastrophe’, from its Greek origins to its application in natural disasters and storytelling.

Etymology and Origin of word Abyss

Explore ‘abyss’: a term from Greek ‘ábyssos’ meaning ‘bottomless,’ used in everyday language, philosophy, and science to describe profound depths.

Diaspora Definition: Tracing the Dispersal from Greek Etymology to Global Context

Explore ‘diaspora’, a term rooted in Greek for ‘scattering’, signifying the widespread dispersion of communities from their native homeland.

Support the Exploration

1$ is enough! Thank you

• 1.1 Pronunciation
• 1.2.1.1 Hyponyms
• 1.2.1.2 Derived terms
• 1.2.1.3 Related terms
• 1.2.1.4 Translations
• 1.2.2.1 Translations
• 1.4 Anagrams

English [ edit ]

Pronunciation [ edit ].

• IPA ( key ) : /ˈmɛθəd/
• Rhymes: -ɛθəd
• Hyphenation: meth‧od

Etymology 1 [ edit ]

From Middle French methode , from Latin methodus , from Ancient Greek μέθοδος ( méthodos ) .

Noun [ edit ]

method ( countable and uncountable , plural methods )

• 1918 , W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell , chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp , Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company , →OCLC : He at once secured attention by his informal method , and when presently the coughing of Jarvis [ … ] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.
• 2013 May-June, William E. Conner , “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist ‎ [1] , volume 101 , number 3, archived from the original on 17 July 2013 , pages 206–7 : Many insects probably use this strategy, which is a close analogy to crypsis in the visible world—camouflage and other methods for blending into one’s visual background.
• c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare , “ The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies   [ … ] ( First Folio ), London: [ … ] Isaac Iaggard , and Ed [ ward ] Blount , published 1623 , →OCLC , [ Act II, scene ii ] , page 261 , column 2: Though this be madneſſe, / Yet there is Method in 't: [ … ]
• 1980 December 6, “Mousie Mousie Wildflower (personal advertisement)”, in Gay Community News , volume 8, number 20 , page 14 : There's method in the universe. We're lucky that things aren't worse.
• 1989 , Kenneth Branagh , Beginning , London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN , page 64 : In this case, the application of the famous method was a little shaky. To be fair, the director was dealing with a pretty stroppy cast.
• 2006 , David A. Black, David Heinemeier Hansson, Ruby for Rails: Ruby Techniques for Rails Developers , Manning, →ISBN , page 101 : When you call the method , you provide values corresponding to these variables in your method call.
• ( slang ) Marijuana . Synonyms: see Thesaurus: marijuana
• ( dated ) An instruction book systematically arranged.

Hyponyms [ edit ]

• Abbott's method
• Buteyko method
• chain-ladder method
• comparative method
• dialectical method
• doomsday method
• elenctic method
• Feldenkrais Method
• Fowler's method
• Gutmann method
• historical method
• methodology
• philosophical method
• pure virtual method
• scholarly method
• scientific method
• Socratic method
• Wiener-Hopf method
• accessor method
• Blissard's symbolic method
• branch current method
• Castigliano's method
• Chorleywood method
• convenience method
• Debye-Scherrer method
• d'Hondt method
• Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method
• generator method
• getter method
• grid method
• Hardy-Littlewood circle method
• Hartree-Fock method
• Lee-Kesler method
• mutator method
• Nissl method
• setter method
• sexual method
• Tomatis method
• virtual method
• Westergren method
• Yuzpe method

Derived terms [ edit ]

• abstract method
• access method
• annihilator method
• barrier method
• Bates method
• bisection method
• calendar method
• cascade method
• Cash-Karp method
• chakravala method
• combinatorial method
• concrete method
• Condorcet method
• Coppersmith method
• Coppersmith's method
• Cseh method
• Czochralski method
• Dayi method
• D'Hondt method
• Dodgson's method
• Dormand-Prince method
• Duckworth-Lewis method
• Durand-Kerner method
• erotematic method
• Euler method
• Euler's method
• factory method pattern
• Ferber method
• final method
• fluorine method
• Freiburg method
• Fridrich method
• Gauss-Seidel method
• Golgi's method
• Gram's method
• gray rock method
• grey rock method
• Halley's method
• Heun's method
• Horner's method
• Householder's method
• input method
• input method editor
• Jefferson method
• Joback method
• Kjeldahl method
• Korotkoff method
• Kumon method
• Kyropoulos method
• lattice Boltzmann method
• lumen method
• Martindale method
• method actor
• method of indivisibles
• method of loci
• method of Weierstrass
• method overloading
• method to one's madness
• Monte Carlo method
• my very easy method just speeds up naming planets
• Newton-Raphson method
• Newton's method
• plus-minus method
• remote method invocation
• rhythm method
• Runge-Kutta method
• Schwarzschild method
• Schwarzschild's method
• secant method
• summability method
• summation method
• Tabata method
• Taguchi method
• Tanzalin method
• template method
• template method pattern
• test-retest method
• Tukey's method
• Vaganova method
• word method
• Ziehl-Neelsen method
• Ziehl-Neelsen's method

Related terms [ edit ]

• methodic , methodical → methodically
• methodology , methodological ( methodologic )

Translations [ edit ]

Verb [ edit ].

method ( third-person singular simple present methods , present participle methoding , simple past and past participle methoded )

• 1809 , Rachel Russell (baroness.), Letters. To which is prefixed, an intr. vindicating the character of lord ... "Says he, there is above ten thousand brisk boys are ready to follow me, whenever I hold up my finger : — Says I, how have you methoded this, that they shall not be crushed, for there will be a great force to oppose you?"
• ( casting , by extension , transitive ) To apply particular treatment methods to (a mold ). The company employs extensive use of 3D modelling combined with solidification simulation to ensure that critical castings are properly methoded .

Etymology 2 [ edit ]

Abbreviation.

method ( plural methods )

• ( skateboarding , snowboarding ) Ellipsis of method air ..

Anagrams [ edit ]

• English 2-syllable words
• English terms with IPA pronunciation
• English terms with audio links
• Rhymes:English/ɛθəd
• Rhymes:English/ɛθəd/2 syllables
• English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
• English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sed-
• English terms borrowed from Middle French
• English terms derived from Middle French
• English terms derived from Latin
• English terms derived from Ancient Greek
• English lemmas
• English nouns
• English uncountable nouns
• English countable nouns
• English terms with usage examples
• English terms with quotations
• en:Object-oriented programming
• English slang
• English dated terms
• English verbs
• English transitive verbs
• en:Skateboarding
• en:Snowboarding
• English ellipses
• en:Directives
• en:Marijuana
• en:Systems theory
• English entries with topic categories using raw markup
• Cantonese terms with redundant transliterations
• Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations
• Mongolian terms with redundant script codes

Navigation menu

• More from M-W
• To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

Definition of etymology

Did you know.

Commonly Confused: Etymology and Entomology

The etymology of etymology itself is relatively straightforward. Etymon means "origin of a word" in Latin, and comes from the Greek word etymon , meaning "literal meaning of a word according to its origin." Greek etymon in turn comes from etymos , which means "true." Be careful not to confuse etymology with the similar-sounding entomology . Entomon means "insect" in Greek, and entomology is the study of bugs.

Examples of etymology in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'etymology.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Middle English ethimologie , from Anglo-French, from Latin etymologia , from Greek, from etymon + -logia -logy

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing etymology

• folk etymology

Articles Related to etymology

How to Use the Dictionary

Take it from the people who know.

Time Traveler Quiz: Which Word Came...

Time Traveler Quiz: Which Word Came First?

Which word entered the English language first?

'Muskrat,' 'Helpmate,' and 6 More Folk...

'Muskrat,' 'Helpmate,' and 6 More Folk Etymologies

When logic meets language

Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP

Get Word of the Day delivered to your inbox!

Dictionary Entries Near etymology

etymologize

Cite this Entry

“Etymology.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/etymology. Accessed 13 May. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of etymology.

Latin etymologia "etymology," from Greek etymon "true meaning of a word" and Greek -logia "study, science," from etymos "true" and logos "word, reason"

More from Merriam-Webster on etymology

Nglish: Translation of etymology for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of etymology for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about etymology

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

More commonly misspelled words, your vs. you're: how to use them correctly, every letter is silent, sometimes: a-z list of examples, more commonly mispronounced words, how to use em dashes (—), en dashes (–) , and hyphens (-), popular in wordplay, the words of the week - may 10, a great big list of bread words, 10 scrabble words without any vowels, 8 uncommon words related to love, 9 superb owl words, games & quizzes.

Open Education Sociology Dictionary

methodology

Table of Contents

Definitions of Methodology

• ( noun ) The study of methods .
• ( noun ) A system or  theory of how research proceeds, including considerations for ethics, methods , participants, and researchers.

Methodology Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification :  meth·od·ol·o·gy

Audio Pronunciation

Phonetic Spelling

• American English – /meth-uh-dAHl-uh-jee/
• British English – /me-thuh-dOl-uh-jee/

International Phonetic Alphabet

• American English – /ˌmɛθəˈdɑlədʒi/
• British English – /ˌmɛθəˈdɒlədʒi/

Usage Notes

• Plural:  methodologies
• Not to be confused with methods .
• Also called methodological analysis .
• An ( noun ) methodologist uses ( adjective ) method ologic or ( adjective ) method ologistic or ( adjective ) method ological ideas ( adverb ) method ologically .

Related Quotation

• “The first and fundamental rule is to consider social facts as things” (Durkheim [1895] 2004:50).

Related Videos

Additional Information

• Qualitative Research Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
• Quantitative Research Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
• Word origin of “methodology” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com

Related Terms

• qualitative research
• quantitative research
• reliability

Durkheim, Émile. [1895] 2004. “The Rules of Sociological Method.” Pp. 43–63 in Readings from Emile Durkheim . Rev. ed., edited and translated by K. Thompson. New York: Routledge.

Works Consulted

Agger, Ben. 2004. The Virtual Self: A Contemporary Sociology . Malden, MA: Blackwell.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language . 5th ed. 2011. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Marsh, Ian, and Mike Keating, eds. 2006.  Sociology: Making Sense of Society . 3rd ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.

Merriam-Webster. (N.d.) Merriam-Webster Dictionary . ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/ ).

O’Leary, Zina. 2007. The Social Science Jargon Buster: The Key Terms You Need to Know . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries . ( https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/ ).

Thompson, William E., and Joseph V. Hickey. 2012.  Society in Focus: An Introduction to Sociology . 7th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia . Wikimedia Foundation. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/ ).

Cite the Definition of Methodology

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “methodology.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary . Retrieved May 13, 2024 ( https://sociologydictionary.org/methodology/ ).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

methodology. (2014). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary . Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/methodology/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “methodology.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary . Accessed May 13, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/methodology/ .

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“methodology.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary . Ed. Kenton Bell. 2014. Web. 13 May. 2024. < https://sociologydictionary.org/methodology/ >.

A method to the methodology?

• Post author By Pat and Stewart
• Post date July 1, 2014

Q: When we accountants write about the “methodology” for cost allocations, we are trying to make our work sound more important than if we had used “method.” How do you feel about the use of “methodology” to mean, as it often does, a fancy method; a complex method, a glorified method, rather than, based on its roots, the study of method?

A: Etymologically, “methodology” does mean the study of method, and that was the word’s original meaning in the early 19th century. But it has grown and prospered since then.

In 1800, when it was first recorded in English, “methodology” meant “the branch of knowledge that deals with method generally or with the methods of a particular discipline or field of study,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary .

Subsequently, the OED says, the word also came to mean “the study of the direction and implications of empirical research, or of the suitability of the techniques employed in it.”

And more generally, Oxford adds, “methodology” simply means “a method or body of methods used in a particular field of study or activity.”

In our opinion, many people use “methodology” as a bigger and fancier word for a method or methods. But they’re not incorrect in doing so, as you can see from that OED definition.

Nevertheless, we’d use the word “method” if we were referring to a method. If the simpler word would do, why not use it?

The fancier word is made up of the noun “method” plus “-ology,” which the OED says is used in “forming nouns with the sense ‘the science or discipline of (what is indicated by the first element).’ ”

The word element “-ology” (like the shorter “-logy”) is Greek in origin and is used to form nouns meaning a branch of study or knowledge.

The ultimate source is the Greek logos (variously meaning word, speech, discourse, reason). Added to the end of a word, – logos means one who discourses about or deals with a certain subject, as in astrologos (astronomer).

As for “method,” the noun entered English in the early 1400s by way of French ( méthode ). Its classical ancestors are the Latin methodus (mode of proceeding), and the earlier Greek methodos (pursuit).

As John Ayto explains in discussing “method” in his Dictionary of Word Origins , “ ‘Pursuit’ of a particular objective gradually developed into a ‘procedure for attaining it,’ the meaning which the word had when it entered English.”

The word “method” still has that general meaning: “a procedure for attaining an object,” as the OED says, or “a way of doing anything, esp. according to a defined and regular plan.”

But Oxford also includes this: “A special form of procedure or characteristic set of procedures employed (more or less systematically) in an intellectual discipline or field of study as a mode of investigation and inquiry, or of teaching and exposition.”

Hmm. That definition of “method” sounds a lot like the general  meaning of “methodology.”

While “methodology” is a perfectly legitimate word, the OED points out that many “-ology” nouns were jokes.

“The earliest formations on purely native elements are mainly humorous and nonce words,” the dictionary says. It mentions “trickology” (trickery, first recorded in 1723); “caneology” (the doctrine of using the cane for punishment, 1837); as well as the self-explanatory “dogology” (1820), “bugology” (1843), and “noseology” (1819).

We’ll close with a quotation, given in the OED , from William John Locke’s novel The Wonderful Year (1916): “Much might be written on noses. The Great Master of Noseology, Laurence Sterne, did but broach the subject.”

Help support the Grammarphobia Blog with your donation . And check out our books about the English language.

Share this:

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Tags English , English language , Etymology , Grammar , Language , Linguistics , Usage , Word origin

Help support Grammarphobia.com

Search the blog, the blog is updated regularly read our latest posts …, subscribe to the blog by email.

Enter your email address to subscribe to the blog by email. If you are an old subscriber and not getting posts, please subscribe again.

Email Address

Other subscription options:

Blog archives

Advertisement

The “autopsy” enigma: etymology, related terms and unambiguous alternatives

• Open access
• Published: 25 October 2023

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

• Jacob Foster   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7379-4089 1  

1264 Accesses

5 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

The concerted use of Greek-derived medical terms in the present day allows us to facilitate effective communication while honouring the historic roots of Western medicine. The word autopsy derives from its third century B.C. Hellenistic Greek etymon αὐτοψία (“to see for oneself”), later borrowed into Neo-Latin as autopsia and Middle French as autopsie . Throughout its etymological journey, autopsie underwent semantic narrowing from the passive sense “self-inspection of something without touching”, to a purposeful action by an operator performing “an examination of the human body itself”, to specifically “dissection of a dead human body”. These curious turning points for the meaning of autopsie produced an auto-antonym: the same word now has multiple meanings, of which one is the reverse of another. The French autopsie used in the latter sense predates that documented for the English autopsy (attested 1829). Since the early nineteenth century, attempts were made to remedy the discrepancy between conflicting senses either by adding determining adjectives to the existing noun, or by substituting it with another word altogether. This review explores the etymological journey of autopsy , considers which related terms have been popularised throughout history, introduces the concept of lexical ambiguity and suggests unambiguous English compound ( necropsy and necrotomy ) and Latin-derived ( non-invasive and invasive postmortem examination ) alternatives to satisfy a recent appetite for clarity in international professional and next-of-kin communication.

Similar content being viewed by others

Back to the future - part 1. the medico-legal autopsy from ancient civilization to the post-genomic era.

Bioethical Aspects of Postmortem Imaging

Strength and limits of conventional forensic medicine.

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

Three quarters of contemporary English medical terminology is estimated to be of Greek origin; unsurprising, given the pioneering impact on modern medicine from 500 B.C. classical Greece [ 1 ]. Until relatively recently, linguistic contact between living Greek and English languages was not possible, and so lexical diffusion was necessarily indirect. Vocabulary items were mostly borrowed through Latin, via written media and daughter languages (the Romance languages, particularly French), or from Ancient Greek texts. The concerted use of Greek-derived medical terms in the present day allows us to facilitate effective communication while honouring the historic roots of Western medicine.

One such medical term now more commonly represents a procedure that directly contradicts its original intended sense. As a result, the word autopsy has, throughout history, bewildered death investigation stakeholders. Its continued use in the decision-making process for how invasive a postmortem examination ought to be may confuse and alienate families at a time where clarity is exceptionally important. How are we meant to counsel and consent the deceased’s next-of-kin if we, as death investigators, cannot agree on definitions for the very procedures we are proposing? This review explores the etymological journey of autopsy , considers which related terms have been popularised throughout history, introduces the concept of lexical ambiguity, and suggests unambiguous alternatives to satisfy a recent appetite for clarity in international professional and next-of-kin communication, as discussed by previous authors [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ].

Etymology and semantic change

The term autopsy derives from its third century B.C. Hellenistic Greek etymon αὐτοψία ( autopsia , “to see for oneself”); an amalgamation of αὐτός ( autos , “oneself”) and ὄψις ( opsis , “sight; view”) [ 6 ]. Αὐτοψία at this time vaguely denoted the self-inspection of something, without physically touching it. The object being inspected or observed could be virtually anything, and was certainly not restricted to deceased human bodies. It was used in a literal sense to portray self-inspection by Galen ( Κλαύδιος Γαληνός ; 129–216 A.D.) in his seminal text, later translated into the Latin De Anatomicis Administrationibus [ 7 ]. The Byzantine Greek αὔτοπτος was used until 1453 and subsequently borrowed into Neo-Latin as autopsia [ 6 ]. Autopsia came to reference those observations made on live patients by a physician for the purposes of diagnosis, contrasting with historia (denoting information supplied by patients themselves) [ 8 ]. It was much later when the phrase autopsia cadaverum (“autopsy of cadavers”, with variants like autopsia cadaverica ) was written into several Latin medical texts, including the 1765 Synopsis Universae Praxeos-Medicae of the French physician Joseph Lieutaud [ 9 ].

Autopsia transitioned into the Middle French autopsie ; attested 1573 from a source cited in Desmaze’s Curiosités des anciennes justices (though the context does not make the precise sense clear) [ 10 ]. Autopsie is again attested 1665, without context, in a list of scientific terms used in the unpublished letters of a seventeenth century French physician [ 11 ]. Authoritative dictionaries have assigned these instances to the sense “postmortem examination” [ 6 ]. However, given the lack of source context, widespread religious prohibition to human dissection pre-eighteenth century, and the infrequency with which the sense “postmortem examination” was referenced at the time, it seems probable that in at least one of these two instances the author(s) meant “careful visual examination of a living patient”. The French autopsie underwent semantic narrowing from the passive “self-inspection of something without touching”, to a purposeful action by an operator performing “an examination of the human body itself”, to specifically “dissection of a dead human body” [ 12 ]. This curious turning point for the meaning of autopsie created an auto-antonym: the same word now has multiple meanings, of which one is the reverse of another. The French autopsie used in the latter sense predates that documented for the English autopsy , Spanish autopsia , Italian autopsia and German autopsie ; although attestations are rare in all languages before the beginning of the nineteenth century [ 11 ]. Perhaps as a result of the lexical ambiguity of autopsie , attempts were made to remedy the discrepancy between conflicting senses either by adding a determining adjective to the existing noun (the popular autopsie cadavérique is attested 1801, and the rarer autopsie cadavéreuse 1821), or by creating the newer nécropsie to specifically denote “an examination of a corpse” (attested 1826). However, the latter has never succeeded in supplanting autopsie [ 11 , 13 ].

Use of the English autopsy as applied specifically to “an examination of a dead human body” is attested 1829, when von Ruhl, Creighton and Bluhm made an account of the case of the Empress Feodorovna of Russia [ 7 ]. The term was accepted by 1881, at which point the New Sydenham Society’s Lexicon for that year reads “it has of late been used to signify the dissection of a dead body” [ 14 ]. In the same text, autopsy appears alongside autopsia (“self-inspection; evidence actually present to the eye”) and the elaborative autopsia cadaverica (“a post-mortem examination”). Pepper’s 1949 Medical Etymology describes autopsy aptly as “a curious term” [ 8 ]. The current autopsy definition varies according to the source. It can be a noun (i.e. the examination process ), a transitive verb (i.e. the examination act ) or an adjective (i.e. describing someone or something that has undergone an autopsy ). The following are excerpts from nine authoritative English dictionaries, defining the former word class:

au●top●sy, noun. ˈɔː.tɒp.si.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language [ 15 ]:

Examination of a cadaver to determine or confirm the cause of death.

A critical assessment or examination after the fact.

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary [ 16 ]:

The cutting open and examination of a dead body in order to discover the cause of death.

The Chambers Dictionary [ 17 ]:

A postmortem.

Any dissection and analysis.

Collins English Dictionary [ 18 ]:

Dissection and examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death.

An eyewitness observation.

Any critical analysis.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English [ 19 ]:

An examination of a dead body to discover the cause of death.

Macmillan Dictionary [ 20 ]:

A medical examination of a dead person’s body to find out why they died.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary [ 21 ]:

An examination of a body after death to determine the cause of death or the character and extent of changes produced by disease.

A critical examination, evaluation, or assessment or someone or something past.

Oxford English Dictionary [ 6 ]:

The action or process of seeing with one’s own eyes; personal observation, inspection, or experience.

Examination of the organs of a dead body in order to determine the cause of death, nature and extent of disease, result of treatment, etc.; a post-mortem examination; an instance of this.

A critical examination or dissection of a subject or work.

Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary [ 22 ]:

The inspection and dissection of a body after death, as for the determination of the cause of death.

A critical analysis of something after it has taken place or been completed.

As is exemplified above, some lexicographers attempt to capture a physical act with phrases like “examination of the organs” and “cutting open”, while others fixate on the outcome: “to determine the cause of death” or “changes produced by disease” [ 2 ]. These definitions would infer that the primary aim of the autopsy is to determine the cause of death, and there is no mention as to how this might be achieved apart from cutting or dissecting. None of the aforementioned definitions for autopsy represent fully the diversity of postmortem procedures for the purposes of death investigation. For instance, the postmortem examination does not necessarily involve entering the body in any way, and its aim is not always to find a cause of death either: amongst other things, they help to determine viability in infants, manner of death and post-mortem interval; they facilitate identification and organ retrieval; and can be used for research purposes. In short, one might make a postmortem examination of varying invasiveness in order to answer several different questions from a range of stakeholders.

Forensic pathology texts use the word autopsy frequently, some exclusively, with authors providing their own definitions. Knight refers to the autopsy as “an innately destructive process [that] can cause artifacts”; Dolinak writes “the autopsy consists of an external examination, followed by internal examination of the organs”; and Prahlow describes “a surgical examination performed on a dead body… involves opening the abdomen, chest, and head to examine and then remove the organs for dissection, with or without subsequent examination of microscopic sections” [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. The Human Tissue Authority, National Health Service and Royal College of Pathologists all define autopsy vaguely as “an examination of a body after death” [ 26 , 27 , 28 ]. In contrast to the English interpretation of autopsy , Greek forensic practitioners use their translated equivalent αυτοψία to refer to any careful examination, without destroying evidence, of the crime or death scene [ 3 ]. This interpretation is a more literal one; a testament to the relatively direct evolution from Ancient to Modern Greek language.

Related nouns and determining adjectives

Nowadays, autopsy occurs between 1 and 10 times per million words in typical modern English usage, along with other words which are considered to be distinctively educated, while not being overly technical or jargon (example nouns at a similar frequency include surveillance , assimilation and paraphrase ) [ 29 ]. Since the early nineteenth century, attempts have been made to remedy the discrepancy between conflicting senses either by adding determining adjectives to the existing noun, or by substituting autopsy with another word altogether, although none have succeeded in surpassing its popularity for over a century (Fig.  1 ).

Google Books Ngram Viewer graphs showing how frequently the words autopsy , necropsy , post-mortem examination and necrotomy occurred in a corpus of books from 1800 to 2019 in: a English published in any country; b English published in the USA; and c English published in the UK [ 29 ]

The term postmortem examination is an example: a borrowing from Classical Latin post (“after”) and mortem , accusative of mors (“death”), attested 1834 [ 30 ]. The term is frequently shortened simply to postmortem , and may be hyphenated or unhyphenated for the sense “examination of a dead body” (although the latter is not also used for the “after death” adverb form). Knight remarks “the term ‘ post-mortem examination’ is a common alternative, especially in Britain, where its meaning is never in doubt. Unfortunately, it suffers from a lack of precision about the extent of the examination, for in some countries many bodies are disposed of after external examination without dissection” [ 23 ]. However, one may argue that the word autopsy provides even less information about the content of the examination, given its original sense “self-inspection of something without touching it” and current polysemy. Knight observed the relative popularity of postmortem examination over autopsy in Britain; use of the former was preferred between the 1830s and 1930s in British English compared with American English texts, as represented by Fig.  1 . Substitutions of autopsy for postmortem examination were common: the 1885 English translation of Virchow’s Die Sections-Technik preferred the term postmortem examination over autopsy , and similarly Hektoen in his 1894 The Technique of Post-mortem Examination [ 31 ]. Nowadays in the United Kingdom, statutory and regulatory bodies tend to either offer vague, overarching definitions for autopsy , or replace it altogether with postmortem examination , as has been the case with recently amended Home Office publications [ 32 ]. UK Government legislation makes no reference to the autopsy , and instead refers only to postmortem examinations . This is epitomised by Acts governing activities involving human tissue [ 33 , 34 ], and those involving the authorisation of postmortem examinations by judicial officers [ 35 , 36 ].

A contributor to JAMA’s 23 rd issue in 1901 poses a dilemma presented to the US Circuit Court in Kentucky, illustrating the importance of accurate language in these circumstances [ 37 ]: when a person taking out a life insurance policy permits a medical advisor to examine the body after death, does this give the company the right to make an invasive postmortem examination ? Indeed, the court “did not think that any ordinary person would suppose that they were agreeing to what would have been much more clearly expressed by the word ‘ autopsy ’ or by the word ‘ dissect ’… While an autopsy , generally speaking, always includes an examination , the court does not think that an examination always includes an autopsy ”.

Another term that overtook postmortem examination in popularity from the 1910s was necropsy (attested 1842), which was formed in English by compounding necro- (“death”) and -opsy (“visual inspection”); probably modelled on the aforementioned French nécropsie [ 38 ]. Pepper’s Medical Etymology describes necropsy simply as “a better term than autopsy ” [ 8 ]. Knight writes “though ‘ necropsy ’ is semantically the most accurate description of the investigative dissection of a dead body, the word ‘ autopsy ’ is used so extensively that there is now no ambiguity about its meaning” [ 23 ]. Necropsy is also considered a more general term without reference to species [ 5 ]. Autopsy in its early sense “self-inspection” led many to believe that the frame of reference for “self” was “ourselves”; i.e. our own species, humans. As such, the postmortem examination of a non-human was proscribed from using the term and instead designated a necropsy . However, the current meaning of necropsy is subject to similar criticism as autopsy : strictly, the word portrays “inspection of a dead body”, but is more often used in the context “dissection of a dead body”. In contrast to its English interpretation, Greek forensic practitioners use their νεκροψία to denote an observation of the intact (not yet dissected) deceased [ 3 ]. In Greece, the necropsy would be considered synonymous with the non-invasive or external-only postmortem examination . Necrotomy is a compound of necro- (“death”) and -otomy (“dissection”), and is seldom used in English [ 39 ]. The Greek equivalent νεκροτομία is used to denote “dissection of a dead body”, and is considered synonymous with the invasive or internal postmortem examination [ 3 ].

Several other modern words now use the autopsy root to describe various forms of postmortem examination , and their quantity reflects the sheer variability in procedures. The least invasive is the so-called verbal autopsy (“a method used to ascertain the cause of a death based on an interview with next of kin or other caregivers”); a juxtaposition, given that no examination of the body is actually undertaken, and which Burton suggests would be better represented by postmortem clinical case review [ 40 , 41 ]. Pathological examinations have embraced new technologies, and non-invasive postmortem examinations are often supplemented with various imaging modalities. The so-called virtopsy is a portmanteau of virtual and autopsy , and is a trademark registered to Dirnhofer; the former head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Bern, Switzerland [ 42 ]. A similar buzzword echopsy describes a modified needle autopsy technique with ultrasonography [ 43 ]. Where a postmortem examination does not provide a satisfactory answer for the cause of death, the term negative autopsy is sometimes used. The use of genetic analytic techniques to determine the cause of death in these unexplained cases is represented by the term molecular autopsy ; first proposed 20 years ago [ 44 ].

Indications for postmortem procedures also vary. In England and Wales, there are two fundamental types of postmortem examination : hospital and coronial (usually subdivided into routine coronial and forensic cases). The hospital invasive postmortem examination rate was 0.51% of all deaths in England and 0.65% of all deaths in Wales in 2013 [ 45 ]. Routine coronial and forensic invasive postmortem examinations were performed in 16% and 0.8% of deaths in the same year, respectively [ 46 ]. Confusingly, the vast majority of postmortem examinations instructed by the coroner are performed in a hospital mortuary by histopathologists who are also employed by the National Health Service. The term coronial strictly means “relating to a coroner”, and therefore any postmortem examination authorised by a coroner is, in essence, coronial . However, in England and Wales, coronial cases tend to refer to those that are not forensic . The word forensic derives from Classical Latin forēnsis (“of or belonging to the Forum; of or connected with the law courts”) and its current definition has largely retained this meaning (“of, relating to, or associated with proceedings in a court of law”) [ 47 ]. According to this definition, one would expect the forensic postmortem examination to automatically describe any qualifying coroner-requested procedure, as is the case in almost every other country with an established forensic pathology service, including Scotland (the Procurator Fiscal distinguishes between those cases likely to progress to court and those not, named according to the statutory requirement for corroboration in Scots law: one-doctor or two-doctor postmortem examinations ) [ 48 ]. In England and Wales, the routine coronial and forensic postmortem examinations are distinguished by the cost to the coroner, requirement for a Home Office registered forensic pathologist to perform the procedure, and a higher level of scrutiny with the expectation that the case will be heard in court.

To complicate things further, hospital postmortem examinations are sometimes referred to as consented , and their coronial counterpart as non-consented , given that informed consent is not mandatory in coronial cases. However, families must be notified and will likely be counselled on the advantages and disadvantages of a postmortem examination as applied to an individual case, and may be asked for their “consent” in the sense that the coroner should pay appropriate respect to families’ held religious and cultural wishes with regards to the treatment of the deceased body.

Lexical ambiguity and unambiguous alternatives

When deciding how to deploy language in daily conversation or written literature, a decision must be made: is accurate communication more important than ease or tradition? Should we honour words that are common but misleading? An estimated 80% of common English words have multiple related dictionary senses, but the word autopsy is antilogous: it represents multiple senses, at least one of which (“self-inspection”) is almost the reverse of another (“dissection of a dead body”) [ 49 ]. Because of this, a reader/listener must first decipher exactly which definition is intended to understand any sentence containing the word. This “disambiguation” process involves encountering an ambiguous word, rapidly and automatically retrieving in parallel all known meanings (“exhaustive access”), and then selecting the single meaning that is most likely to fit with that particular context [ 49 ]. The most comprehensively-studied and best understood brain regions responsible for this process are the posterior and middle subdivisions of the left inferior frontal gyrus (eponymous “Broca’s Area”) [ 50 ]. For words with multiple senses, there may either be a so-called "ambiguity advantage" (ambiguous words with multiple related senses are quickly and accurately accessible, conferring faster visual lexical decisions when compared with unambiguous words) or an “ambiguity disadvantage” (multiple unrelated meanings lead to slower visual lexical decisions in the same experiments) [ 51 ]. At present, there are no published studies investigating which term denoting human dissection is easiest to contextualise, and whether the word autopsy confers an “ambiguity advantage” or “disadvantage” relative to its counterparts.

The widespread use of ambiguous language when referring to postmortem procedures will likely lead to skewed perceptions of the general public towards them. The most common sources of postmortem examination -related information in the UK are television and mainstream media, so the beliefs held by the public are perhaps unsurprising: 97% of people in a Sheffield-based sample believed that " post-mortems " involved “examining the inside of the body” whereas only 84% acknowledged that they involved “examining the outside of the body”, demonstrating a relative ignorance to less-invasive techniques [ 52 ]. Recent studies have highlighted the contribution of recent exposure on disambiguation, demonstrating that we are biased to select recently-encountered meanings [ 53 ]. So, while the word autopsy may strictly refer to any postmortem examination (ranging from inspection to dissection), this principle of “word-meaning priming” means that, because the general public are exposed to the word autopsy in the sense “dissecting a dead body” more than “inspecting a dead body” from television or media, they may be more likely to favour the more invasive meaning in any given situation.

Instead of using the autopsy noun with hospital , coronial and forensic adjectives, it is perhaps more useful for families to define a procedure by: (i) who requested the postmortem examination , (ii) for what purpose, and (iii) who intends to perform the postmortem examination . For instance, “a non-invasive postmortem examination and computed tomography scan requested by a coroner to determine a cause of death, performed by a Home Office registered forensic pathologist” or “an invasive postmortem examination requested by a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon to understand the pathophysiology of known surgical complications, performed by a histopathologist”. The definitions in Table 1 would preserve tradition and communication by offering a more logical, sensible lexicon for pathologists performing postmortem procedures, and normalise using universally understood language for bereaved families.

Language standardisation and implications

Language standardisation is the process by which conventional forms of a language are established and maintained [ 54 ]. A standard language typically arises either: (i) without formal government intervention, as is the case with Standard English; or (ii) after being formally prescribed by language authorities, such as the French Académie Française and Spanish Real Academia Española . Given the poor standardisation of English words denoting postmortem procedures (particularly across state and private dictionaries, forensic pathology texts, and individual institutions), a degree of language planning may be necessary to improve communication.

Language planning in this context, amongst other factors, involves balancing lexical ambiguity, word familiarity, frequency of use, similarity with other languages and tradition. The apparent success of codification depends largely on its acceptance by a population as well as its implementation by Government and authoritative bodies. The term postmortem examination is already preferentially used in key UK legislation relating to death investigation and human tissue handling. For pathologists, the proposed lexicon (Table 1 ) may be used in reports, during court proceedings, and in communications with lay-people and experts alike. For researchers, standard terms may be used in published material, so as to reduce uncertainty about the scope and extent of postmortem procedures, and to facilitate research communication globally.

The word autopsy evolved from its Hellenistic Greek etymon αὐτοψία (“to see for oneself”), and progressed through its Neo-Latin and French forms: autopsia and autopsie , respectively. Only relatively recently has the English word been attributed to the sense “dissection of a dead body”, and since this time it has confounded lay and professional understandings of postmortem investigative procedures. Those working within the death investigation sphere should be aware of the uncertainties surrounding this confusing terminology, and use appropriate, accurate language to describe the procedures they are counselling and consenting families on. The historical and geographical variability of autopsy also makes the term unsuitable for communication on an international stage. There have been conscious efforts by policymakers and death investigators to replace the term with unambiguous English compound ( necropsy and necrotomy ) and Latin-derived ( non-invasive and invasive postmortem examination ) alternatives to satisfy a recent appetite for clarity in international professional and next-of-kin communication.

The word autopsy underwent significant semantic change over the course of history.

Modern definitions of autopsy are greatly variable, and differ from its original sense.

Autopsy definitions misrepresent the diversity of postmortem procedures, such that alternative nouns and determining adjectives are needed for clarity.

There have been efforts to replace the term with unambiguous alternatives.

Using standard language improves international professional and next-of-kin communication.

Banay GL. An introduction to medical terminology I. Greek and Latin Derivations. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1948;36(1):1–27.

Peres LC. Post-mortem examination in the United Kingdom: present and future. Autops Case Rep. 2017;7(2):1–3.

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Ampanozi G, Ruder TD, Thali MJ. Autopsy, necropsy, and necrotomy: if used, why not correctly? Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 2012;33(2).

Clark MJ. Autopsy. The Lancet. 2005;366(9499):1767.

Article   Google Scholar  

Law M, Stromberg P, Meuten D, Cullen J. Necropsy or autopsy? It’s all about communication! Vet Pathol. 2011;49(2):271–2.

Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. “autopsy, n.” 2023.

Skinner HA. The origin of medical terms: Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins. 1961.

Pepper OHP. Medical etymology: the history and derivation of medical terms for students of medicine, dentistry, and nursing: WB Saunders Company. 1949.

Lieutaud J. Synopsis Universae Praxeos-Medicae: In Binas Partes Divisa, Quarum prior contractum omnium Morborum, tum internorum, tum externorum conspectum exhibet; alter vero rem Medicamentariam... sistit: sumptibus Fratrum de Tournes. 1765.

Desmaze CA. Trésor judiciaire de la France: Curiosités des anciennes justices d’après leurs registres: H. Plon. 1867.

Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch: Index. Champion. “autopsia”. 2003.

Geller SA. A short history of human dissection and the autopsy. Springer International Publishing. 2019;3–16.

Bretonneau P-F. Des inflammations spéciales du tissu muqueux: et en particulier de la diphthérite, ou inflammation pelliculaire, connue sous le nom de croup, d'angine maligne, d'angine gangréneuse, etc: Chez Crevot. 1826.

The new Sydenham society’s lexicon of medicine and the allied sciences: (based on Mayne’s lexicon). London: New Sydenham Society.  “autopsia; autopsia cadaverica; autopsy”. 1881

The American heritage dictionary of the english language. Fifth Edition ed: HarperCollins Publishers; 2022. “autopsy”.

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Fourth Edition ed: Cambridge University Press; 2013. “autopsy”.

The Chambers Dictionary. Thirteenth Edition ed: John Murray Learning, part of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; 2014. “autopsy”.

Collins English Dictionary Complete and Unabridged. Thirteenth Edition ed: HarperCollins Publishers; 2018. “autopsy”.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Sixth Edition ed: Pearson Longman; 2014. “autopsy”.

Online English Dictionary from Macmillan Education. Macmillan Education; 2023. “autopsy”.

Merriam-Webstercom Dictionary. Merriam-Webster; 2023. “Autopsy”.

Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary. K Dictionaries Ltd.; 2010. “autopsy”.

Saukko P, Knight B. Knight’s forensic pathology: CRC Press; 2015.

Dolinak D, Matshes E, Lew EO. Forensic pathology: principles and practice: Elsevier; 2005.

Prahlow JA, Byard RW. Atlas of forensic pathology: for police, forensic scientists, attorneys, and death investigators: Springer Science & Business Media; 2011.

Post mortem examination FAQs: Human Tissue Authority; 2023 [Available from: https://www.hta.gov.uk/guidance-public/post-mortems/post-mortem-examination-faqs .

Post-mortem: National Health Service; 2022 [Available from: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/post-mortem/ .

Glossary of terms: The Royal College of Pathologists; 2023 [Available from: https://www.rcpath.org/discover-pathology/what-is-pathology/glossary-of-terms.html .

Michel J-B, Shen YK, Aiden AP, Veres A, Gray MK, Google Books T, et al. Quantitative analysis of culture using millions of digitized books. science. 2011;331(6014):176–82.

Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press; 2023. “post-mortem, adv., adj., and n. ”.

Lamb DS. Autopsy, necropsy, necroscopy. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1897;XXVIII(14):661-.

Protocol for membership of the Home Office Register of Forensic Pathologists. Home Office; 2019.

Human Tissue Act 2004.

Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006.

Coroners Act (Northern Ireland) 1959.

Coroners and Justice Act 2009.

Right to examine body does not extend to dissection. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1901;XXXVI(23):1659–71.

Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press; 2022. “necropsy, n.”.

Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press; 2022. “necrotomy, n.”.

Burton JL, Underwood J. Clinical, educational, and epidemiological value of autopsy. The Lancet. 2007;369(9571):1471–80.

WHO. Verbal autopsy standards: the,. WHO verbal autopsy instrument. Geneva: WHO; 2022. p. 2022.

Google Scholar  

Thali MJ, Jackowski C, Oesterhelweg L, Ross SG, Dirnhofer R. VIRTOPSY – the Swiss virtual autopsy approach. Leg Med. 2007;9(2):100–4.

Fariña J, Millana C, Fdez-Aceñero JM, Furió V, Aragoncillo P, Martín VG, et al. Ultrasonographic autopsy (echopsy): a new autopsy technique. Virchows Arch. 2002;440(6):635–9.

Martínez-Barrios E, Grassi S, Brión M, Toro R, Cesar S, Cruzalegui J, et al. Molecular autopsy: twenty years of post-mortem diagnosis in sudden cardiac death. Frontiers in Medicine. 2023;10.

Turnbull A, Osborn M, Nicholas N. Hospital autopsy: endangered or extinct? J Clin Pathol. 2015;68(8):601–4.

Coroners statistics 2015: England and Wales: Ministry of Justice; 2015 [Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/coroners-statistics-2015 .

Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press; 2023. “forensic, adj. and n.”.

Williamson L. Code of practice and performance standards for forensic pathologists dealing with suspicious deaths in Scotland. 2016.

Rodd JM. 96Lexical Ambiguity. 2018 [cited 4/24/2023]. In: The Oxford handbook of psycholinguistics [Internet]. Oxford University Press, [cited 4/24/2023]; [0]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198786825.013.5 .

Vitello S, Rodd JM. Resolving semantic ambiguities in sentences: cognitive processes and brain mechanisms. Language and Linguistics Compass. 2015;9(10):391–405.

Klepousniotou E, Baum SR. Disambiguating the ambiguity advantage effect in word recognition: an advantage for polysemous but not homonymous words. Journal of Neurolinguistics. 2007;20(1):1–24.

Start RD, Saul CA, Cotton DW, Mathers NJ, Underwood JC. Public perceptions of necropsy. J Clin Pathol. 1995;48(6):497–500.

Article   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Rodd JM, Cai ZG, Betts HN, Hanby B, Hutchinson C, Adler A. The impact of recent and long-term experience on access to word meanings: evidence from large-scale internet-based experiments. J Mem Lang. 2016;87:16–37.

The Cambridge handbook of language standardization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2021.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK

Jacob Foster

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jacob Foster .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The author declares no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Foster, J. The “autopsy” enigma: etymology, related terms and unambiguous alternatives. Forensic Sci Med Pathol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-023-00729-9

Download citation

Accepted : 25 September 2023

Published : 25 October 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-023-00729-9

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Bereavement
• Communication
• Terminology
• Linguistics
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research