Where does “philology” come from?
Philology comes from Middle French philologie, from Ancient Greek φιλολογία, combining φιλο- (love of) and λόγος (word, discourse), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European leǵ- (to gather, speak).
philology (English): The humanistic study of historical linguistics;...
Definitions
- The humanistic study of historical linguistics;...
Ancestry of “philology”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle French | philologie | — |
| 2 | Ancient Greek | φιλολογία | love of reasoning; love of learning, love of... |
| 3 | Ancient Greek | φιλόλογος | that loves to speak, loquacious; loving logic;... |
| 4 | Ancient Greek | -λόγος | word, speech; one who speaks; word, knowledge,... |
| 5 | Ancient Greek | -ός | Forms agentive or patientive adjectives and nouns from the o-grade of a verbal root |
| 6 | Proto-Hellenic | *-os | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -ós | Creates agent nouns from verb stems, denoting... |