A glimpse at the Estonian Etymological Dictionary
The Estonian Etymological Dictionary as the first etymological dictionary published in Estonian is an important cultural achievement. This review provides a short overview of the prehistory of the dictionary and its theoretical and philosophical background. The reviewer shows that because of an error in dating the Old Russian language, the dictionary has not distinguished between Old Russian and still older Slavonic borrowings. The concept of root as applied in the dictionary excludes a set of historical derivatives from the etymological approach.