we have to find out meaning of words, e.g. english word - sherbet, language of origin - arabic, old word - sharabat, old meaning - drink. please could someone tell me a website that gives language of origin, old word and old meaning. I have tried a couple of online dictionaries but they don't give origin, old word and meaning. thanks

Question

Since this is not my area of expertise, I searched Google under the key words "Sherbert 'word origin'" to get these possible sources:

http://www.word-detective.com/093098.html
http://www.onelook.com/?lang=all&w=sherbert

I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.

What you are looking for is "etymology".
Here is an excellent site.

http://www.etymonline.com/

You can find other sites here.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=word+etymology&btnG=Google+Search

http://www.answers.com/sherbet

Answers.com is an excellent place to go for these kinds of things, too.

=)

Many thanks, I will try these websites.