Contemporary etymological research : new possibilities and perspectives

The article offers an insight into the Slavonic contemporary etymological research and its new possibilities. Modern etymology has witnessed a sea-change that can be referred to as a digital breakthrough. Thanks to the Internet and electronic media the etymologists today have easier access to historical-linguistic, dialectal and onomastic sources as well as to etymological dictionaries. They also better access to many monographs and studies. Moreover, today the etymologist has no problems making use of analogous materials published in foreign languages, the obtaining of which in the past had posed a major problem. This will clearly accelerate progress in etymological research, thereby opening up new vistas for etymology. We can research effectively the origins of dialectal and colloquial words as well as words no longer in use, a task which had earlier been very diffi cult