Etty holds a secure place among English artists. His drawing was frequently incorrect, but in feeling and skill as a colourist he has few equals. His most conspicuous defects as a painter were the result of insufficient general culture and narrowness of sympathy.
See Etty's autobiography, published in the _Art Journal_ for 1849, and the _Life of William Etty, R.A._, by Gilchrist (2 vols., 1855).
ETYMOLOGY (Gr. [Greek: etymos], true, and [Greek: logos], account), that part or branch of the science of linguistics which deals with the origin or derivation of words. The Greek word [Greek: etymos], in so far as it was applied to words, referred to the real underlying meaning rather than to the origin. It was the Stoics who asserted that the discovery of [Greek: to etymon] would explain the essence of the things and ideas represented by words. Plato in the _Cratylus_ makes a nearer approach to the modern view when he connects, e.g. [Greek: gynê], woman, with [Greek: gonê], seed, while he jests at such etymological feats as the derivation of [Greek: ouranos], heaven, [Greek: apo tou oran ta ano], from looking at things above, or [Greek: anthrôpos], man, from [Greek: ho anathrôn ha opôpen], he who looks up at what he sees. Until the comparative study of philology and the development of the laws underlying phonetic changes, the derivation of words was a matter mostly of guess-work, sometimes right but more often wrong, based on superficial resemblances of form and the like. This popular etymology, to which the Germans have given the name _Volksetymologie_ or folk-etymology, has had much influence in the form which words take (e.g. "crawfish" or "crayfish," from the French _crevis_, modern _écrevisse_, or "sand-blind," from _samblind_, i.e. semi-, half-blind), and has frequently been the occasion of homonyms. W.W. Skeat has embodied in certain canons or rules some well-known principles which should be observed in giving the etymology of a word; these may be usefully given here: "(1) Before attempting an etymology, ascertain the earliest form and use of the word, and observe chronology. (2) Observe history and geography; borrowings are due to actual contact. (3) Observe phonetic laws, especially those which regulate the mutual relation of consonants in the various Aryan languages, at the same time comparing the vowel sounds. (4) In comparing two words, A and B, belonging to the same language, of which A contains the lesser number of syllables, A must be taken to be the more original word, unless we have evidence of contraction or other corruption. (5) In comparing two words, A and B, belonging to the same language and consisting of the same number of syllables, the older form can usually be distinguished by observing the sound of the principal vowel. (6) Strong verbs, in the Teutonic languages, and the so-called "irregular verbs" in Latin, are commonly to be considered as primary, other related forms being taken from them. (7) The whole of a word, and not a portion only, ought to be reasonably accounted for; and, in tracing changes of form, any infringement of phonetic laws is to be regarded with suspicion. (8) Mere resemblances of form and apparent connexion in sense between languages which have different phonetic laws or no necessary connexion are commonly a delusion, and are not to be regarded. (9) When words in two different languages are more nearly alike than the ordinary phonetic laws would allow, there is a strong probability that one language has borrowed the word from the other. Truly cognate words ought not to be _too much_ alike. (10) It is useless to offer an explanation of an English word which will not also explain all the cognate forms" (Introduction to _Etymological Dictionary of the English Language_, 1898).