Why is it that when discussing the etymology of a word, we nearly always say it’s “from the <Language>?”
It’s from The Latin or The Greek or The German or The Martian.
Why not just say it’s from French, or what-have-you?
Inquiring minds want to know, dammit.
Well, generally, you say, for example,
“The word ethnic comes from the Greek ‘ethnos’, meaning tribe.”
so you’re really saying the <language> <word>.
Probably short for “it’s from the Chinese language”.
Well, that makes perfect sense. But I often see the <language> left dangling there without a <word>. So are you saying all the people who use it that way are incorrect and just trying to sound hifalutin’?
Or can’t think of the word it’s from…
“It’s from the Greek…from the Greek, uh…From the Greek”
