English Etymology Quiz

English Language Origins

• Many English words are derived from words in other languages.
• Etymology is the study of word origins, providing interesting facts about the diverse words in the English language.

Language Contributions

• 29% of foreign words in English come from France, examples include: ambulance, parachute, and sauce.
• 29% of English words have Latin origins, examples include: agenda, and data.
• 26% of English words have Germanic origins, examples include: dollar, muffin, and kindergarten.
• 6% of English vocabulary comes from the Greek language.

Word Examples

• The word "blare" originated from the Middle Dutch word "blaren", meaning to shout.
• The word "circle" is derived from both Latin and Greek, with the Latin word "circus" meaning circle and the Greek word "kirkos" meaning ring.
• The word "force" comes from the Latin word "fortis", meaning strong.

Language Development

• Learning the origin of every new word acquired is the best way to understand how the language works and to ease the future process of learning.
• English is constantly changing and growing, with the Oxford English Dictionary adding around 500 new words and phrases every year.