Poems by Milton
Etymology: where words come from
Use word history to understand vocabulary.
Etymology is the study of a word's past: where it came from, and how its form and meaning changed over time.
A good dictionary entry often ends with a short note on the word's origin.
For example, 'entomb'd' (buried in a tomb) comes from late Middle English, borrowed from French.
About 30 per cent of English words are of French origin. Many were borrowed after the Norman Conquest of 1066, especially between 1250 and 1400.
The old spellings in Milton's poems (Shakespear, easie, conceaving) show that English spelling was still changing in his time.
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