Ethnology vs. Etymology — What's the Difference?

Ethnology (from the Greek: ἔθνος, ethnos meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology).

Etymology () is the study of the history of words. By extension, the etymology of a word means its origin and development throughout history.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts, and texts about the language, to gather knowledge about how words were used during earlier periods, how they developed in meaning and form, or when and how they entered the language.

The branch of anthropology that analyzes and compares human cultures, as in social structure, language, religion, and technology; cultural anthropology.

The study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history

(anthropology) The branch of anthropology that studies and compares the different human cultures.

The origin and historical development of a linguistic form as shown by determining its basic elements, earliest known use, and changes in form and meaning, tracing its transmission from one language to another, identifying its cognates in other languages, and reconstructing its ancestral form where possible.

The science which treats of the division of mankind into races, their origin, distribution, and relations, and the peculiarities which characterize them.

The branch of linguistics that deals with etymologies.

The branch of anthropology that deals with the division of humankind into races and with their origins and distribution and distinctive characteristics

The study of the historical development of languages, particularly as manifested in individual words.

(countable) The origin and historical development of a word; the derivation.

(countable) An account of the origin and historical development of a word as presented in a dictionary or the like.

That branch of philological science which treats of the history of words, tracing out their origin, primitive significance, and changes of form and meaning.

That part of grammar which relates to the changes in the form of the words in a language; inflection.

A history of a word

The study of the sources and development of words