It would be a sad world if we were all the same. Linguistics, per se, doesn't interest me in the slightest, yet etymology does. Not enough for me to study it - I guess it's more of a hobby than a vocational aspiration. My aforementioned colleague was not interested in etymology in the slightest, yet linguistics really 'floated his boat'!

Just to amuse the 'Amused' poster I should perhaps tell you that I took great delight in learning the Latin word for 'sword sheath/scabbard' as well as how and why it's used in modern English. Do a search on Wiki for the origin of 'testify' (as in court) and you may begin to share my enthusiasm, lol.

Of course it's not just these kinds of words that I find interesting. I'm currently compiling a list of directly interchangeable synonyms in English that require no alteration in sentence structure, verb conjugation or subject-verb agreement. For example 'folk/people'. It's surprising how few there actually are.