title	Etymology Graph Explorer
emoji	🌳
colorFrom	green
colorTo	blue
sdk	docker
app_port	7860

Etymology Graph Explorer

A visual tool for exploring the origins and historical relationships between words. Search for any word and see its etymological journey through time, from modern usage back to ancient roots.

Quick Start

Using uv (recommended for development)

# Install dependencies
uv sync

# Run the server
uv run uvicorn backend.main:app --reload

# Open http://localhost:8000 in your browser

Using Docker

# Build the image
docker build -t etymology .

# Run the container
docker run -p 7860:7860 etymology

# Open http://localhost:7860 in your browser

Features

• Search any word to see its etymological tree
• Random word button for exploration and discovery
• Interactive graph - zoom, pan, and click on nodes
• Color-coded languages to visualize word evolution across language families
• Mobile-friendly responsive design

API Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
GET /	Web interface
GET /graph/{word}	Etymology graph for a word (JSON)
GET /search?q=<query>&limit=<n>	Search/autocomplete for words
GET /random	Random English word
GET /version	App version and database stats
GET /health	Health check

Data Source

Etymology data comes from EtymDB 2.1, an open etymological database derived from Wiktionary.

Fourrier & Sagot (2020), "Methodological Aspects of Developing and Managing an Etymological Lexical Resource: Introducing EtymDB-2.0", Proceedings of the LREC Conference.

Tech Stack

• Backend: FastAPI + DuckDB
• Frontend: Vanilla JS + Cytoscape.js
• Data: EtymDB 2.1 (auto-downloaded on first run)

Development

uv sync                        # Install dependencies
uv run prek install            # Set up pre-commit hooks
uv run pytest backend/tests -q # Run tests

Linting (ruff) runs automatically on commit via prek.

Deploy

make hf-deploy  # Deploy to HF Spaces (stages, pushes, squashes history)
make cf-deploy  # Deploy Cloudflare Worker (custom domain proxy)

License

GPL-3.0 - see LICENSE