Etymology is a really cool thing. It simply means the
history of the development of a word. An etymological study of language is one
that investigates how the words we use came to mean what they mean today: where they
originated, what they meant back then, and when and how they changed, expanded, diluted
or sometimes even reversed their meanings to become what we understand by them when
we use them today.
Lately I have been thinking about catastrophes. Did you know that originally a catastrophe was not
necessarily a bad thing?