# "Etymology" comes from The Greek.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-comes-from-the-greek/143076>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 16, 2002, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-comes-from-the-greek/143076 "2002-12-16T14:32:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-comes-from-the-greek/143076/1 "2002-12-16T14:32:16Z")

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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.

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**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-comes-from-the-greek/143076/2 "2002-12-16T14:38:25Z")

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Well, generally, you say, for example,

“The word ethnic comes from the Greek ‘ethnos’, meaning tribe.”

so you’re really saying the \<language\> \<word\>.

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**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-comes-from-the-greek/143076/3 "2002-12-16T14:45:23Z")

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Probably short for “it’s from the Chinese _language_”.

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-comes-from-the-greek/143076/4 "2002-12-16T14:46:09Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Captain Amazing \*  
> so you’re really saying the \<language\> \<word\>.

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’?

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**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-comes-from-the-greek/143076/5 "2002-12-16T14:59:41Z")

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Or can’t think of the word it’s from…

“It’s from the Greek…from the Greek, uh…From the Greek”

🙂