a. [f. as prec. + -AL.] Of, or pertaining to, etymology; based upon, or in accordance with, etymology.
1592. trans. Junius on Rev. ix. 11. This name belongeth unto the Etymological interpretation of Hildebrand.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., i. Notes 20. Take largest etymologicall liberty, and you may haue it from Ellan-ban i. the white Isle.
c. 1620. A. Hume, Brit. Tongue (1865), 11. It wer more etymological to wryt montan, fontan, according to the original.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 9/2. Peruse, for a farther Description … Francis Holyoke, his Etymological Dictionary.
1747. Johnson, Plan Dict., Wks. IX. 183. Its [arrive’s] original and etymological sense.
1769. in Grant, Burgh Sch. Scotl., II. xiii. (1876), 355. The Etymological part of the rudiments of the Latin grammar.
1824. L. Murray, Eng. Gram. (ed. 5), I. 331. Specimens of etymological Parsing.
1865. Max Müller, Chips (1880), I. vi. 130. A meaning that … can … be defended on … etymological grounds.
b. nonce-use. Engaged in the study of etymology.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (ed. 4), I. 17. So, we are to be etymological to-night, exclaimed Gower.
