Etymology
According to Adrian Room’s book Place-names of the World', the name Etna is said to have originated from a Phoenician word attuna meaning "furnace." He dismisses the theory that Etna is from Greek αἴθω = "I burn" In Classical Greek, it is called Αἴτνη (Aítnē), and Aetna in Latin. It is also known as Muncibeddu in Sicilian and Mongibello in Italian (from the Latin mons and the Arabic gibel, both meaning mountain). Its Arabic name was Ǧabal al-Nār ("the Mountain of Fire").
Read more about this topic: Mount Etna
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)