Etymology is a scince of tracing history of the words in any language. Since Accounting is a language of business it can be applied to accounting as well. I would like to give you an example. Till a couple of years ago we used the word "Depreciation". This word is no longer used in accounting. Instead word "Amortization" is now used. Although Amortization was a terminology for depreciating intengible assets in the past but now a days this word has a wider application and includes depreciation of tengible assets as well.