the.com/philology
Loving language so hard you autopsy every word to find its ancestors.
means The study of language in historical texts, tracing how words and meanings evolved across time.
from Greek philos (loving) plus logos (word, speech) — literally a love of words, coined by people who meant it.
Original meaningOnce just meant love of learning generally.
Detective workReconstructed lost languages from surviving written clues.
Tolkien's day jobHe was a philologist before Middle-earth.