GRE Word List

ETYMOLOGY

the history of a linguistic form (such as a word) shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found, by tracing its transmission from one language to another, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages, or by tracing it and its cognates to a common ancestral form in an ancestral language

The meaning of the word etymology is the history of a linguistic form (such as a word) shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found, by tracing its transmission from one language to another, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages, or by tracing it and its cognates to a common ancestral form in an ancestral language.

Random words

WordMeaning
purportto have the often specious appearance of being, intending, or claiming (something implied or inferred)
vivaciouslively in temper, conduct, or spirit : sprightly
gyroscopea wheel or disk mounted to spin rapidly about an axis and also free to rotate about one or both of two axes perpendicular to each other and to the axis of spin so that a rotation of one of the two mutually perpendicular axes results from application of torque to the other when the wheel is spinning and so that the entire apparatus offers considerable opposition depending on the angular momentum to any torque that would change the direction of the axis of spin
incubateto sit on (eggs) so as to hatch by the warmth of the body
paeana joyous song or hymn of praise, tribute, thanksgiving, or triumph
constraintthe act of constraining
totterto move unsteadily : stagger
contrivedevise
odoriferousyielding an odor : odorous
writheto twist into coils or folds