Peter Montgomery wrote:

>Etymology is usually the best scholarly starting
>point when it comes down to a single word. You
>may wish to check out the etymology of the Greek
>word LOGOS.
>
Dear Peter,
Etymology can be very helpful, but your claim that it is "usually the
best scholarly starting point when it comes down to a single word" seems
to me exaggerated. But then, you don't follow your own suggestion. Your
direction towards the etymology of "logos" is a step at least beyond
that starting point. "Logos" plays no part in the etymology of "word,"
the "single word" Vishvesh inquired after.

 From the OED -- I've transliterated the Greek characters, sans accents:

    [OE. word str. n. = OFris., OS. word, MDu. wort (Du. woord), OHG.,
    MHG., G. wort, ON. orð (Sw., Da. ord), Goth. waurd:–OTeut.
    *wurdom:–pre-Teut. *wrdho-; cf. Lith. vardas name, Lett. wàrds word,
    forename, OPruss. wirds word, OIr. fordat ‘inquiunt’.

    Indo-Eur. werdh- is generally taken to be a deriv. of wer-, were-,
    which appears in Gr.ereo I shall say, rhetor speaker, L. verbum
    word, Skr. vratám command, law, etc.]


Marcia