The scholarly practice of etymology seems to have been very widespread geographically and historically in earlier times, and it continues to remain an object of great interest for ordinary people throughout the world even today.1 The different kinds of spoken languages and writing systems that have been involved and the different roles and ambitions of scholars in their cultures have led to considerable variation in the nature of the practice. The common denominator of all those texts is that they deal with the subject of the origin and meaning of individual words. The present chapter gathers under the heading “etymology” premodern texts from different ages and places that all had a tremendous and lasting impact on the intellectual life of the countless people who were brought up in the respective cultures.
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