Etymonline English Dictionary 4+

Easy, Witty, Enlightening

The modern world has no shortage of dry wit, but Etymonline is both funny and incisive, making the expository paragraphs more compelling by their unique voice. The app itself is bare-bones, but easy to use. The cross-references in the entries are sometimes haphazard, but the ones borne of winding asides are reliably the most interesting, and make for a fun garden path to wander down. I frequently consult it in conversation with family and friends for a steady supply of amusement. (Did you know a “lord” is a bread-guard?) Nothing quite connects one to our linguistic forebears and punctures our pretensions about the hoary past like learning that their silly word-games are our standard English. (Robins are so named because the personal name alliterated with “redbreast;” the people aren’t named for the birds.) In sum, this is one of my most-used apps. It becomes a game all its own, the Pac-Man of language nerds. Follow the trail of tidbits and find the ghosts still wandering through the halls of diction.

AMAZING

I am almost 50 and I remember as a kid quite often hearing, “ Look it up yourself in the dictionary and you will never forget it !”. Now enter the “Google Smart Age”, as I like to call it. I work with a lot of 20 somethings .... ask them anything... most of them literally have to “ google it”, to give you most answers. I asked this college kid at work the other day , the definition of “Hypocrite”.....he googled it came back with a simple definition. Then I showed him this site and we dug into that word and the roots of it , usage in language etc.... a few hours later this kid actually responded “ Wow... this site is Amazing... I feel as if I have the knowledge of this one word as good as my PHD English Teacher ... when I recently had a discussion with her about the word in class”..... what happened in our society over the last 40+ years not teaching kids how to Think !!!!... just an AWESOME SITE !!!

Not compatible with Dark Mode

First, bug report. When the dark mode is on, I won’t be able to see the texts in the search list because they are white. I can’t see the words in my bookmark list either for the same reason. The background should not be so bright in dark mode.

The content is great. The app is simple and intuitive, even though the subscription fee is too high in my opinion, so I’m not considering paying for it. Merriam-Webster charges $6 for each year. The content is already impressive, and the app is well designed. Please consider a one-time payment option. I will be happy to pay for it if that’s provided.

Developer Response ,

Hi, the dark mode problem has been solved in the latest version. Thanks for taking out time to rate us. It really helps us to keep going and delivering the best :) If you have any feedback or suggestion in the future, you could write to us at peigencihui@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you!