The English word etymology ultimately goes back to Ancient Greek and literally means “study of the true sense (of words).”etymonline+2
Greek roots
In Ancient Greek, ἐτυμολογία (etymologíā) is formed from ἔτυμον (étymon) meaning “true sense, real meaning,” plus the suffix -λογία (-logía), “study” or “account, discourse.” The element etymon in later linguistic usage came to mean the original form or “true” historical source of a word from which later forms are derived.wikipedia+1
The suffix -logía is the same element seen in many other scholarly terms like biology or theology, where it indicates a reasoned study of some subject.wiktionary+1
Path into Latin, French, and English
Greek ἐτυμολογία was taken into Latin as etymologia with essentially the same sense: the analysis of words to uncover their original or “true” meanings. From Latin it passed into Old French as etimologie or ethimologie in the 14th century. Middle English borrowed it in various spellings such as ethymologie or ethimolegia, before stabilizing in Modern English as etymology.saturdayeveningpost+3
Semantic development
In classical usage, etymologia referred specifically to analyzing a word to find its original or “true” sense, often in a philosophical or allegorical way, as seen in Plato’s dialogue Cratylus. Over time, in English the term broadened to mean both the discipline that studies the origin and historical development of words and the origin story of a particular word itself.merriam-webster+3