It seems that rubbing shoulders with you folks is turning me into a novice etymologist. (go figure, I always thought they worked with bugs...)
I'm too eratic to be any good at it, but I find I am always currious to see where new, (to me), words originated.
Sometimes when guessing at the original
language of a word to run through a translator for a definition,I can't help but try out a few more languages to see if there is a hit when my guess is wrong.
Mostly I just end up frustrated by not knowing the origin of the root of the word I'm looking up.
I would like to see a translate to [all] option.
It should be fairly simple for a program to find the root of any given word, then find its language of origin and then expound from that to form an 'actual' starting point for idjits like me spinning our wheels in the mud.
.
Idjit:
colloquial derivation of Idiot:
from the Greek word idiwtes (idiotes), which refers to a person disinterested in participating in democracy and public life. These people were viewed as selfish, contemptable and stupid as they were more concerned with their daily personal affairs than they were of the good of the society. Later in the Middle Ages the word took on additional connotations associated with being stupid, such as being mentally incapable.
Doh!
See what I mean?
That word is completely wrong!
I'm like, totally, all about the good of society.