Word.ws English Dictionary

etymological argument

etymological argument noun: explanation and analysis—often considered controversial—of one or more concepts or linguistic terms by means of an exposition of their linguistic origins.

Noun

etymological argument (plural etymological arguments)

  1. Explanation and analysis—often considered controversial—of one or more concepts or linguistic terms by means of an exposition of their linguistic origins.
    • But it goes without saying that this etymological argument in and of itself has no significance, since a word taken from a dead language may resultantly assume a meaning independent of its etymology.1877, Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov, translated by Valerie Z. Nollan, The Philosophical Principles of Integral Knowledge, Eerdmans, published 2008, →ISBN, page 58
    • Nothing need be said about the etymological argument except perhaps that it was characteristic of Stoic philosophers to think such an argument could be used with force, because they believed that language is not conventional, but natural.1970, Josiah B. Gould, The Philosophy of Chrysippus, →ISBN, page 148

Forms of etymological argument

pluraletymological arguments

Questions about etymological argument

What does etymological argument mean?
Etymological argument means explanation and analysis—often considered controversial—of one or more concepts or linguistic terms by means of an exposition of their linguistic origins.
What part of speech is etymological argument?
Etymological argument is a noun.
What is the plural of etymological argument?
The plural of etymological argument is etymological arguments.

Words near etymological argument in the dictionary

  1. etymol.
  2. etymologer
  3. etymologers
  4. etymologic
  5. etymological
  6. etymological argument
  7. etymological arguments
  8. etymological fallacies
  9. etymological fallacy
  10. etymological hybrid
  11. etymological hybrids

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: etymological argument (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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