Tuesday, July 05, 2005
What is the Difference Between Entomology and Etymology?
The next time that you are at a party discussing the West Nile virus and the mosquitos that carry it, you could be engaging in entomology, that is: the study of insects. Among those that are fleetingly familiar with both words, this one is often confused with etymology which is the study of word origins. Etymology often offers a fascinating foray into the progression of meaning of some words. The word mosquito comes from the Spanish diminutive mosca or fly. The Latin word for fly is musca. A variation is midge which is a "small dipteran fly". (If you are a fan of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, you may recall one or two scenes when the hobbits were besieged by armies of annoying midges.) A mosquito is of the family of dipteran flies.
# posted by Ninja @ 12:35 PM 
