In the present volume, the author makes some remarks on the practice and purpose, or the form and meaning, of etymological research.

The volume is divided into two parts both of which contain an “expositio”, outlining a general idea, and three “explicationes”, illustrating this idea or some aspects of it with concrete examples. In the first part, the author suggests that etymology should more refl ect on present-day linguistics and how it could do it, which is illustrated with several Baltic, Slavonic and Celtic examples. In the second part, he then demonstrates that one of the most important purposes of etymology is its role as an auxiliary science of history and illustrates this role with three Czech, Slavonic and German examples.