It is difficult to find word roots and especially dates of origin. As one blogger asks:

http://www.wordwizard.com/ch_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=18979

Any further hints and comments welcome

I like etymonline...

eta: Good'n, I ensconced it among my Favorites

Know any sites like this for slang, etc--Thanks

Dale, have you browsed through Max's useful language links? You'll find a lot of gems there.

http://maxqnzs.com/References.html

The enquirer Dale refers to seems to want to go from the root to its derivatives. Might I suggest the appendices to the American Heritage Dictionary, which trace the present-day derivatives from various Indo-European roots.