New and corrected impression.

This 1901 volume of A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language completely updates the classic reference work first published in 1882. Skeat provides a staggering number of words, including those most frequently used in everyday speech and those most prominent in literature. They appear along with their definitions, their language of origin, their roots, and their derivatives. Those who are fascinated with the English language will find much to explore here and many overlooked but interesting tidbits and treasures of an ever-evolving language. Walter W. Skeat was a scholar of Old English, mathematics, English place names, and Anglo-Saxon. He founded the English Dialect Society in 1873 and was a professor at Cambridge University. Skeat edited many classic works, including Lancelot of the Laik, Piers Plowman, The Bruce, Lives of Saints, and a seven-volume edition of Chaucer.

Tracing words to their origins opens a new window to human civilization and culture and helps us understand the roots of some of our present social trends and attitudes. For example, the etymology of words for family members clearly shows the division of responsibilities in the most basic unit of society - the family. Father was the "protector" of the family (Pa: protect), mother was the "feeder"(Ma: breast), brother was the load "carrier" (Bher: carry) and daughter was the "milker" (Dhugh: to milk). If one makes the effort to read beyond the shallow shell of sounds and symbols, one can recognize our human oneness portrayed in our words and their historical roots. The primary motivation for writing this dictionary is the hope that it would foster a greater appreciation for the commonality in the apparent variance among different languages and cultures, and ultimately nurture a greater understanding among those who speak apparently different languages. In tracing any Persian word to its origins, its cognates in other Indo-European languages must be considered. In this dictionary, English cognates are regularly referred to along with some other Indo-European equivalents. Altogether, over 1,600 roots and 17,400 derived words are presented in this dictionary. One of the most unique features of this dictionary is its graphical presentation of etymological data, similar to a family tree. The derivations of words are indicated with arrows rather than lengthy text. The arrows greatly simplify the process of tracing words to their roots.

First published in 2004. The purpose of this dictionary is to provide the student with a representative vocabulary of Pahlavi in which such uncertain words have been reduced to a minimum and marked. It includes the commonest 4,000 simple words.

Practical and reliable, this reference traces English words back to their Indo-European roots. Each entry features a brief definition, identifies the language of origin, and employs a few illustrative quotations. An extensive appendix includes lists of prefixes, suffixes, Indo-European roots, homonyms and doublets, and the distribution of English-language sources.