what is the study of words and phrases and how they came to be??

Question

I'm trying to find out what the study of words and phrases is called..I can't recall the books names I read years ago, but basically it's just where sayings came from and how certain words came to be, not really thinking along the latin words but more common early american stuff thanks for any help

Answer 1

etomology i believe

Answer 2

Linguistics is to a foreign language what mastering grammar and syntax is to one's one language.

Few are masters of their own language and even fewer as masters of another.

Masters of another are called interpreters. They have mastered more than the lingustics, know how to read between the lines.

I knew a woman from Guatamal and she told me she thinks in both American and Guatamalan.

We can, in the U.S., talk easily to a Canadian or an Englander, but we don't think like they think so the words don't have the same impact or connotation.

This is the big problem with linguistics of dead languages. Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Aramatic.

We face this same problem with deep thinkers. Physicists, for example. To them the word Atom has a far different significance than it does from a non-physicist.

You, however, are talking about word origins, which is a completely different field of etymology. Where the words came from.

Answer 3

Linguistics

Answer 4

linguistics is the study of words and languages. I took a class of it in College. Very interesting

Answer 5

It is etomology and I think the oxford english dictionary (the encyclopedia sized one, not the little book) provides background to the words.

Answer 6

etymology is the study of the origin of words...can't help with phrases and colloquialisms.

Answer 7

syudy means oly rievision