Word origins, also known as etyma, are the study of the origin and history of words. It is a branch of linguistics that looks at how words have evolved over time and how they have been adopted into different languages. Etyma is derived from the Greek word etymon, which means 'true sense'. Word origins can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European language, which is the ancestor of most modern European languages. By studying the etyma of words, linguists can gain insight into the development of language and its evolution over time.