Partridge's associates

Usage examples of etymologists.

Many Latin etymologists consider that in very early Roman times the pontifex was a maker of bridges, and that the making of bridges was considered a mystical art, thus putting the maker in close touch with the gods.

His pre-eminence in the latter faculty gave occasion to some etymologists to ring changes on his name, and to decide that it was derived from Follis Optimus, softened through an Italian medium into Folle Ottimo, contracted poetically into Folleotto, and elided Anglice into Folliott, signifying a firstrate pair of bellows.