etymon

Maybe it’s a problem with the term itself: the Latin etymon, avunculus, specifically denoted a mother’s brother.

—Can any of your correspondents refer me to the etymon of this name, given to a vocation attached to our English courts of law?

The following etymons have been suggested: 1, pilum, Lat. the head of an arrow; the Spaniards and Italians call this ordinary cuspis.

I will even allow, willingly, that a more perfect Hebrew scholar than myself may esteem my etymons fanciful and incorrect.

It happens, perhaps yet more frequently, that a German name, which cannot be explained by anything within the range of Teutonic dialects, may find a sufficient etymon from the Celtic.