If, as you say, Wordsmith depends on his dictionaries, I want to know which ones they are and how they come to such an etymology. I have to make sure I never buy such drivel.

My second major in college may have been the Classics, but I'd be very surprised to find that I'm the only member with a Greek professor in his background.

What I find shocking is that no one else seems to have questioned the statement that telephone was derived from "telikos." Pretty much from the day I learned the word telephone, I knew its etymology, and then someone suddenly tries to tell me that the rest of the world is wrong.

I once met someone from Iceland, where they work very hard to keep foreign words out of the language. Their word for telephone is a combination of ancient Icelandic roots meaning "far away" and "sound," just as the English.