Can You Trust Your (Etymological) Dictionary? «In a typical etymological thriller, the main witnesses have been dead for a long time or refuse to speak. Historical linguists are doomed to play the game of probabilities and are often satisfied with the least improbable rather than the most probable solution. The authors of etymologies are disadvantaged detectives, not seers. The public stays away from the lexicographical kitchen and has blind faith in dictionaries. This is an excellent thing, for despite the fashionable opinion that all knowledge is relative and that there is no reality (everything is allegedly a construct and depends on the point of view of the observer), we pine for the absolute. »
I suppose that there are some people who didn't know that etymologists are like doctors, historians, and weather forcasters, doing their best to get it right. Since none of us are seers, are we all "disadvantaged detectives"?