Etymologies are not definitions; they’re explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago…

In other words, word origins or word history - English. So, from the Online Etymology Dictionary, one etymology of the word ‘etymology’ is here. A sample:

1398, from Gk. etymologia, from etymon “true sense” (neut. of etymos “true,” related to eteos “true”) + logos “word.” In classical times, of meanings; later, of histories. Latinized by Cicero as veriloquium.

The online etymology dictionary passed the recursion test with flying colors.