Wordnet 3.0
NOUN (2)
1.
a history of a word;
2.
the study of the sources and development of words;
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Etymology \Et`y*mol"o*gy\ (-j[y^]), n.; pl. Etymologies
(-j[i^]z). [L.etymologia, Gr. 'etymologi`a; 'e`tymon etymon +
lo`gos discourse, description: cf. F. ['e]tymologie. See
Etymon, and -logy.]
1. That branch of philological science which treats of the
history of words, tracing out their origin, primitive
significance, and changes of form and meaning.
[1913 Webster]
2. That part of grammar which relates to the changes in the
form of the words in a language; inflection.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
etymology
n 1: a history of a word
2: the study of the sources and development of words
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
37 Moby Thesaurus words for "etymology":
bowwow theory, comparative linguistics, derivation,
descriptive linguistics, dialectology, dingdong theory, eponymy,
folk etymology, glossematics, glossology, glottochronology,
glottology, grammar, graphemics, historical linguistics,
language study, lexicology, lexicostatistics, linguistic geography,
linguistic science, linguistics, mathematical linguistics,
morphology, morphophonemics, origin, paleography, philology,
phonetics, phonology, psycholinguistics, semantic history,
semantics, sociolinguistics, structuralism, syntactics,
transformational linguistics, word history