Etymology:

1398, from Gk. etymologia, from etymon "true sense" (neut. of etymos "true," related to eteos "true") + logos "word." In classical times, of meanings; later, of histories. Latinized by Cicero as veriloquium.

Sometimes I really do love the internet. Not just pleased with it, as when Wikipedia coughs up a completely unexpected but fascinating article about twine, or lusting for it, and the various websites - most of them routed through the Netherlands - offering up my pornography of choice: HD-quality episodes of Battlestar Galactica. But I truly love it whenever I remember that a website exists called EtymOnline.com.

Some of us are geeked-out enough to take pleasure from knowing that "bachelor" and "baccalaureate" come from the same linguistic headwater, and EtymOnline is a site full of these, offering at a touch language roots, past meanings, and the year of first use/publication. It's kind of a big deal, not only as a neat passtime and geek-fuel, but a valuable student resource. Etymology notes are at the end of most Dictionary.com entries, but not to the breadths and depths laid out with EtymOnline. I really am glad that I'm alive at a time when useful, interesting, hyperspecific information can reach me from any angle with perfect ease.

The internet, that spicy mistress, what has she got for me next? Will Colonel Tigh and Caprica-Six's child be the Fifth Cylon?...