license: cc-by-sa-4.0
language:
- en
task_categories:
- token-classification
- text-classification
pretty_name: English Etymology Tagger Dataset
dataset_info:
features:
- name: word
dtype: string
- name: display_word
dtype: string
- name: parts_of_speech
sequence: string
- name: etymology_texts
sequence: string
- name: pairs
list:
- name: mechanism
dtype: string
- name: source_language
dtype: string
- name: source_code
dtype: string
- name: source_term
dtype: string
- name: template
dtype: string
- name: detail
dtype: string
- name: source_languages
sequence: string
- name: mechanisms
sequence: string
splits:
- name: train
num_examples: 102111
configs:
- config_name: default
data_files:
- split: train
path: etymology_records.jsonl
English Etymology Tagger Dataset
A refined dataset of English word etymologies derived from Wiktionary entries via machine-readable JSONL from Kaikki.
Dataset Statistics
1. Data Pipeline & Volume
- Original Source: 1,465,676 English entries (total lines in the Kaikki English JSONL).
- Extracted Datapoints: 102,111 entries (words containing etymological templates parsed by
wiktextract).
2. Source Language Distribution (Top 10)
Based on the relevant datapoints ($N = 102,111$):
| Language | Frequency | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Latin (consolidated) | 23,728 | 23.24% |
| English (consolidated) | 20,974 | 20.54% |
| French (consolidated) | 16,694 | 16.35% |
| Greek (consolidated) | 10,074 | 9.87% |
| German (consolidated) | 7,300 | 7.15% |
| Chinese (consolidated) | 5,017 | 4.91% |
| Italian | 4,729 | 4.63% |
| Proto-Germanic (consolidated) | 4,692 | 4.59% |
| Spanish | 4,628 | 4.53% |
| Proto-Indo-European | 4,097 | 4.01% |
| ... | ... | ... |
| Other (all languages < 1%) | 30,339 | 29.71% |
3. Entry Mechanism Distribution
Based on the extracted datapoints ($N = 102,111$). The dataset categorizes origins into four primary mechanisms:
- borrowed: Words taken directly from another language (e.g., sushi from Japanese).
- derived: Words formed by morphological derivation from another language's roots.
- inherited: Words passed down continuously from an ancestor language (e.g., from Old English to Modern English).
- calqued: Word-for-word translations of phrases or compound words from another language (e.g., skyscraper translated into French as gratte-ciel).
| Mechanism | Frequency | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| borrowed | 57,530 | 56.34% |
| derived | 45,760 | 44.81% |
| inherited | 18,032 | 17.66% |
| calqued | 2,231 | 2.18% |
(Note: Percentages sum to >100% because words can have multiple labels. The "Other" category aggregates hundreds of minority languages.)
Data Processing & Refinement
The data provided in this dataset (etymology_records.jsonl) contains the 102,111 parsed records. The following normalization is applied during the creation of this dataset:
- Linguistic Consolidation: Common historical and regional variants are mapped to their primary language families to reduce sparsity. The consolidated language families include: Latin, English, French, German, Greek, Chinese, Dutch, Scots, and Proto-Germanic.
- Exclusions: Non-etymological labels (e.g., "Translingual") or structurally empty templates are removed.
Source
The source is English Wiktionary data extracted by Wiktextract and published by Kaikki.
Limitations
Etymology represents the primary paths captured in Wiktionary templates and may not reflect every historical nuance for complex terms.