An etymological dictionary discusses the etymology of the words listed. Often, large dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's, will contain some etymological information, without aspiring to focus on etymology.[1]
Etymological dictionaries are the product of research in historical linguistics. For many words in any language, the etymology will be uncertain, disputed, or simply unknown. In such cases, depending on the space available, an etymological dictionary will present various suggestions and perhaps make a judgement on their likelihood, and provide references to a full discussion in specialist literature.
The tradition of compiling "derivations" of words is pre-modern, found for example in Sanskrit (nirukta), Arabic (al-ištiqāq) and also in Western tradition (in works such as the Etymologicum Magnum and Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae). Etymological dictionaries in the modern sense, however, appear only in the late 18th century (with 17th-century predecessors such as Vossius' 1662 Etymologicum linguae Latinae or Stephen Skinner's 1671 Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae), with the understanding of sound laws and language change and their production was an important task of the "golden age of philology" in the 19th century.
Robert K. Barnhart & Sol Steinmetz, eds. Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology. Bronx, NY: H. W. Wilson, 1988 (reprinted as Chambers Dictionary of Etymology).
Terry F. Hoad. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Ernest Klein. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–67.
Kolec Topalli. Fjalor etimologjik i gjuhës shqipe. Durrës: Jozef, 2017.
Vladimir Orel. Albanian Etymological Dictionary. Leiden: Brill, 1998.
Eqrem Çabej. Studime etimologjike në fushë të shqipes. 7 vols. Tirana: Akademia et Shkencave e Republikës Popullore të Shqipërisë, Instituti i Gjuhësisë dhe i Letërsisë, 1976–2014.
Marlies Philippa, Frans Debrabandere, A. Quak, T. Schoonheim, & Nicoline van der Sijs, eds. Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands (EWN). 4 vols. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2003–09.
Nicoline van der Sijs. Etymologisch woordenboek: de herkomst van onze woorden, 2nd edn. Orig. by P.A.F. van Veen. Utrecht–Antwerp: Van Dale Lexicografie, 1997 (1st edn. 1989).
Jan de Vries. Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek (NEW), 4th edn. Leiden: Brill, 1997 (1st edn. 1971).
Alain Rey, ed. Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, 4th edn. 2 vols. Paris: Le Robert, 2016 (1st edn. 1992).
Emmanuèle Baumgartner & Philippe Ménard. Dictionnaire étymologique et historique de la langue française. Paris: Livre de Poche, 1996.
Jacqueline Picoche [fr]. Dictionnaire étymologique du français. Paris: Le Robert, 1971.
Albert Dauzat, Jean Dubois, & Henri Mitterand. Nouveau dictionnaire étymologique et historique, 2nd edn. Paris: Larousse, 1964 (1st edn. 1938).
Oscar Bloch & Walther von Wartburg. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 2nd edn. Paris: PUF, 1950 (1st edn. 1932).
Walther von Wartburg & Hans-Erich Keller, eds. Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch: Eine Darstellung des gallormanischen Sprachschatzes (FEW). 25 vols. Bonn: Klopp; Heidelberg: Carl Winter; Leipzig–Berlin: Teubner; Basel: R. G. Zbinden, 1922–67 (some vols. have since been revised).
Georgios Babiniotis. Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [= Etymological Dictionary of the Modern Greek Language]. 2 vols. Athens: Κέντρο λεξικογραφίας, 2010.
Ancient Greek
Rafał Rosół. Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2013.
Robert S. P. Beekes. Etymological Dictionary of Greek. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Pierre Chantraine. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: Histoire des mots, 2nd rev. edn. 2 vols. Revised by Jean Taillardat, Olivier Masson, & Jean-Louis Perpillou. Paris: Klincksieck, 2009 (2nd edn. 1994; 1st edn. 1968–80 in 4 vols.).
Hjalmar Frisk. Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 3 vols. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1960–72.
Michiel de Vaan. Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages. Leiden: Brill, 2008.
Alois Walde. Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd edn. 2 vols. Revised by Johann Baptist Hofmann. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1938–54 (1st edn. 1906).
Alfred Ernout & Antoine Meillet. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: Histoire des mots (DELL), 4th rev. edn. 2 vols. Revised by Jacques André. Paris: Klincksieck, 1985 (4th edn. 1959–60; 1st edn. 1932).
Vytautas Mažiulis. Prūsų kalbos etimologijos žodynas, 2nd rev. edn. [= Etymological dictionary of Old Prussian]. Vilnius: Mokslas, 2013 (1st edn. 1988–1997).
José Pedro Machado. Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 3rd edn. 5 vols. Lisbon: Livros Horizonte, 1977 (1st edn. 1952).
Antonio Geraldo da Cunha. Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th edn. Revised by Cláudio Mello Sobrinho. Rio de Janeiro: FAPERJ/Lexikon, 2010 (1st edn. 1982).
Pavel Yakovlevich Chernykh. Историко-этимологический словарь современного русского языка [= Historical and etymological dictionary of modern Russian language]. 2 vols. Moscow: Русский язык. 1993.
Max Vasmer. Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 3 vols. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1953–58. (Translated into Russian and expanded by Oleg Trubachov, Этимологический словарь русского языка. 4 vols. Moscow: Прогресс, 1959–1961.)
Petar Skok. Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika [Etymological Dictionary of the Croatian or Serbian Language]. 4 vols. Zagreb: Jugoslavenska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, 1971–4.
Alemko Gluhak. Hrvatski etimološki rječnik. Zagreb: August Cesarec, 1993.
Aleksandar Loma, ed. Етимолошки речник српског језика. 4 vols. (А–Бљ). Beograd: Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 2003–.
Ranko Matasović, Tijmen Pronk, Dubravka Ivšić, Dunja Brozović Rončević. Etimološki rječnik hrvatskoga jezika. 2 vols. Zagreb: Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje, 2016–21.
Michel Bénaben. Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol. Paris: Ellipses, 2000.
Edward A. Roberts. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words Based on Indo-European Roots, 2 vols. (vol. 1: A-G; 2: H-Z). Self-published, Xlibris, 2014.[self-published source]
Reworking of: Alois Walde & Julius Pokorny. Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen. 3 vols. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1927–32 (reprint 1973).
Carl Darling Buck. A dictionary of selected synonyms in the principal Indo-European languages. University of Chicago Press, 1949 (paperback edition 1988).
Franciszek Sławski [pl], ed. Słownik prasłowiański. 8 vols. (A-G). Wrocław/Warsawa/Kraków/Gdańsk: Zakład narodowy imienia Ossolińskich / Wydawnictwo Polskiey akademii nauk, 1974–2001. Unfinished.
Erich Berneker. Slavisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 1 vol. and 1st fascicle of 2nd vol. (A-*morъ). Heidelberg: Carl Winter's Universitätsbuchhandlung, 1908–1914. Unfinished.
Franz Miklosich. Etymologisches Wörterbuch der slavischen Sprachen. Vienna: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1886. 547 pp.
[22] – Turkish Etymological Dictionary by Sevan Nişanyan "Sözlerin Soyağacı – Çağdaş Türkçe'nin Etimolojik Sözlüğü" (Third ed. Adam Y. Istanbul 2007)
Austronesian languages
[23] – Austronesian Comparative Dictionary by R. A. Blust
[24] – Indonesian Etymological Dictionary by S. M. Zain
[25] – Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary by E. Tregear
[26] – A Concise Waray Dictionary (Waray-Waray, Leytese-Samarese) with etymologies and Bicol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilocano, Kapampangan, Pangasinan and Tagalog cognates
[35] – Uralic Etymological Dictionary by S. A. Starostin et al.
[36] – Estonian Etymological Dictionary by Iris Metsmägi, Meeli Sedrik, Sven-Erik Soosaar
[37] – Zaicz, Gábor. Etimológiai szótár: Magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete (’Dictionary of Etymology: The origin of Hungarian words and affixes’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2006, ISBN9637094016, first edition.
