It is fair to say that etymology is one of the most interesting linguistic fields for me, as it combines almost all of my favorite things - history, culture, language and a great skill in mystery solving and deduction. In my recent aimless research of interesting things in different languages I encountered few curious etymological cases that are worth of attention.

1) The word oxymoron is an oxymoron itself: it is constructed from Old Greek "oxus", which is translated as "sharp" and "moros" that can be interpreted as "dull". Thus, a direct translation of oxymoron is literally "sharp-dull", which is, ironically, also an oxymoron.

2) The Finnish word for "world" is Maailma, a word compound consisting of "earth" ("maa") and "sky" ("ilma"). A very poetic way to describe that humans live between these two elements.

3) Most Spanish words that begin with prefix "al-" have Arabic origin. Nevertheless, the word albergue came to Spanish from Old Gothic haribairgo that signified a military camp. A very interesting example of misleading etymology.

4) Berserk found its way into English from Old Norse compound "bear" + "shirt". A warrior called that was literally wearing a bear skin, probably as sign of fierceness and bravery.

Besides those four examples, there are thousands more, for as many languages exist in this world, as many interesting stories can be told about them. Some of these stories became famous, such as travel of the word "tea" across the globe or the transformation of the word "gothic" throughout the ages, but there are still so many secrets of languages to be uncovered that I feel the same anxiety mixed with anticipation as from realization that I want to read all the book written in this world.