etymo-js

A NodeJS and browser wrapper for fetching etymology information in various languages from Douglas Harper's wonderful Online Etymology Dictionary (https://www.etymonline.com)

Please refer to Online Etymology Dictionary's Terms of Service to make sure you are not infringing intellectual property rights with your use case, and please be kind to their servers.

Consider donating directly to Douglas Harper for maintaining an excellent word resource.

Get started

Add etymo-js to your Node project

npm install etymo-js

import { Etymo } from "etymo-js";
// initialize
const etymo = new Etymo();

async function run() {
  const results = await etymo.search("remember");
  console.log(results);
}

run();

Returns an array of search results, with the first item being most relevant:

[
      {
        "term": "remember (v.)",
        "def": "mid-14c., remembren, \"keep or bear (something or someone) in mind, retain in the memory, preserve unforgotten,\" from Old French remembrer [...]",
        "path": "/word/disremember#etymonline_v_11486",
        "id": "11486"
      },
      {
        "term": "*(s)mer- (1)",
        "def": "Proto-Indo-European root meaning \"to remember.\" \n' +
          'It forms all or part of: commemorate; commemoration; mourn; memo; memoir; memorable; memorandum; memorial [...]"
        "path": "/word/*%28s%29mer-#etymonline_v_53458",
        "id": "53458"
      },
      {
        "term": "remembrance (n.)",
        "def": "c. 1300, remembraunce, \"a memory, recollection,\" from Old French remembrance (11c.), from remembrer (see remember). From late 14c. as \"consideration, reflection; present consciousness [...]",
        "path": "/word/remembrance#etymonline_v_37059",
        "id": "37059"
      } ...
      ]

Usage

Note - requires internet connection to retrieve data.

.search()

Basic search

Returns array of search result obejcts ({ term, def, path, id}), ordered by relevance to search term

const res = await etymo.search("remember");

[
    {
    "term": "remember (v.)",
    "def": "mid-14c., remembren, \"keep or bear (something or someone) in mind, retain in the memory, preserve unforgotten,\" from Old French remembrer [...]",
    "path": "/word/disremember#etymonline_v_11486",
    "id": "11486"
    }, ...
]

Multi-word search

It's fine to use spaces in the search term

const res = await etymo.search("back seat");

[
  {
    "term": "back seat (n.)",
    "def": "also back-seat, 1832, originally of coaches, from back (adj.) + seat (n.). Used figuratively for \"less or least prominent position\" by 1868. Back-seat driver \"passenger who gives the driver unwanted advice\" is [...]",
    "path": "/word/back%20seat#etymonline_v_42318",
    "id": "42318"
  }, ...
]

.get()

Gets an entry by its path. You can also specifify the language of the definition returned.

Returns a single entry ({ term, def, path, id})

get English definition

const res = await etymo.get("/word/remember#etymonline_v_10402");

{
  "term": "remember (v.)",
  "def": "mid-14c., remembren, \"keep or bear (something or someone) in mind, retain in the memory, preserve unforgotten,\" from Old French remembrer \"remember, recall, bring to mind\" (11c.)[...]",
  "path": "/word/remember#etymonline_v_10402",
  "id": "10402"
}

get definition in another language

You can specify an option lang parameter . See avaialable languages below. Note that the lang parameter will override any language pre-pended in the provided path.

// get definition in Japanese
const res = await etymo.get("/word/remember#etymonline_v_10402", {
  lang: "jp",
});

{
  "term": "remember (v.)",
  "def": "14世紀中頃、remembren は、「（何かや誰かを）心に留める、記憶に保つ、忘れないようにする」という意味で使われました。これは、古フランス語の remembrer「思い出す、思い起こす」（11世紀）から来ており、ラテン語の rememorari「思い出す、記憶する」から派生したものです。これは、re-「再び」（re- を参照） [...]",
  "path": "/jp/word/remember#etymonline_v_10402",
  "id": "10402"
}

Supported languages

Language	Two-Letter Code
English	en
Spanish	es
French	fr
German	de
Italian	it
Portuguese	pt
Japanese	ja
Chinese	zh
Korean	ko

.trending()

Returns a list of terms currently trending on etymonline.com

const res = await etymo.trending();

// => ['nepotism','nickelodeon','hero','island','ego','fast','spell','gospel','father','confidence']

Development

Package created with @el3um4s/typescript-npm-package-starter

Ignore the TS errors in the test file 🤷 Jest doesn't seem to care.

Build the package

Run

npm run build

Test the package

You can test the code with Jest

npm test

You can find the test coverage in coverage/lcov-report/index.html.

Check dependencies

You can check and upgrade dependencies to the latest versions, ignoring specified versions. with npm-check-updates:

npm run check-updates

You can also use npm run check-updates:minor to update only patch and minor.

Instead npm run check-updates:patch only updates patch.

Publish

First commit the changes to GitHub. Then login to your NPM account (If you don’t have an account you can do so on https://www.npmjs.com/signup)

npm login

Then run publish:

npm publish

If you're using a scoped name use:

npm publish --access public

Bumping a new version

To update the package use:

npm version patch

and then

npm publish