A brief history of Etymology

Abstract

The etymological studies never were independent of the linguistic ones, although they have their own method, which will be shown in this paper in a historiographical way. From Plato’s thought to the creation of the Phonetic Laws during the Renaissance and to its development from the historical and comparative point of view of Gyarmathi, Rask and the authors from Germany, new assumptions are defined in the first half of the twentieth century, when there is a pause, resumed only at the end of the same century. The knowledge of the History of Etymology is particularly important to the future development of etymological studies of the Portuguese Language.