author
Ernest Weekley
1865–1954
Best known for making the history of words lively and approachable, he was a British philologist whose books on etymology helped bring scholarly language study to a wider audience. His work remained a valued reference point for later writers on English word origins.
2 Audiobooks
The Romance of Names
by Ernest Weekley
The Romance of Words (4th ed.)
by Ernest Weekley
About the author
Born in 1865, Ernest Weekley was a British philologist and lexicographer with a lasting reputation in etymology. He is especially associated with An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English (1921), a major reference work that influenced many later writers on word origins.
Weekley spent much of his academic career at University College Nottingham, where he served as Professor of Modern Languages from 1898 to 1938. Alongside his teaching, he wrote books on language that aimed to make philology readable and engaging for general audiences as well as students.
He died in 1954, but his writing still stands out for combining scholarship with clarity. For readers interested in where words come from and how English has developed, Weekley remains an accessible and important guide.