"M" Word Origins

magma

Greek

From Greek mágma ("paste, thick ointment").

magnanimity

Origin

From Middle French magnanimité, from Old French [Term?], from Latin magnanimitās.

magnanimous

Latin

From Latin magnanimus, from magnus ("great") + animus ("spirit, mind").

magnate

Late Latin

From Late Latin magnātēs, plural of magnās, from magnus ("great").

magnesium

New Latin

From New Latin magnesium, based on Greek Magnēsía, a region in Thessaly; coined by the chemist Humphry Davy, who first isolated it.

magnetic

Latin

From magnet + the adjective suffix -ic; "magnet" traces back through Latin and Greek to Magnesia, a region associated with naturally magnetic stone.

magnetism

Origin

From magnet + the noun-forming suffix -ism.

magneto

Origin · 1800

A shortening of "magneto-electric machine", the original 19th-century name for the device.

magnification

Origin

Built from "magnify" plus the suffix "-fication", following the pattern of words like "clarification".

magnificence

Latin

From Old French magnificence, going back to Latin magnificentia, built on magnificus, "doing great things".

magnificent

Latin

From Latin magnificus, "great in deeds", built from magnus, "great", and a form of facere, "to do".

magnificently

Origin

From "magnificent" plus the adverb-forming suffix "-ly".

magnifico

Italian

From Italian magnifico ("magnificent"), a close relative of the English word "magnific."

magnify

Latin

From Latin magnificare, "to make great", from magnificus, "doing great things".

magnitude

Latin

From Latin magnitudo, "greatness", built from magnus, "great".

magnolia

French · 1638

Named after the French botanist Pierre Magnol (1638–1715).

magnum

Latin · 1935

From Latin magnum, "great" — the wine-bottle sense is short for magnum bonum, and the firearm sense was registered as a trademark by Smith & Wesson in 1935.

magnum opus

Latin

From Latin magnum opus, literally "great work".

Magnus

Latin

From Latin magnus ("great"), originally a title of Charlemagne, later adopted as a personal name by medieval Scottish and Scandinavian royalty.

Magog

Hebrew

From Biblical Hebrew מָגוֹג (magog).

magpie

Latin

From "Mag", a nickname for Margaret once used for a chatty person, combined with the old word "pie" meaning magpie, from Latin pica.

maguey

Origin

Borrowed from Spanish maguey, from Taíno *mawei.

Maguire

Irish

Anglicized from Irish Mag Uidhir.

magus

Latin

From Latin magus, from Greek magos, "magician", ultimately from an Old Iranian word for a Zoroastrian priest.

magyar

Origin

From Hungarian magyar, from Proto-Ugric *mańćɜ (“man, person”).

mah

Cantonese

Adapted from Cantonese 嘛 (maa3), a similar sentence-final particle.

maha

Origin

Modeled after MAGA. Popularized by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 2024 (after endorsing Donald Trump) but earlier uses exist.

mahal

Arabic

Borrowed from Hindi mahal, from Arabic mahall, "place".

mahalo

Origin

From Hawaiian mahalo.

maharaja

Hindi · 1600

Borrowed from Hindi maharaja, literally "great king" — first recorded in English in the late 17th century.

maharani

Origin

From Hindustani مہارانی / महारानी (mahārānī), from Sanskrit महा (mahā, “great”) and राज्ञी (rājñī, “queen”).

Maharashtra

Sanskrit

From Sanskrit mahārāṣṭra, combining "mahā" ("great") with "rāṣṭra" ("nation" or "realm").

mahasattva

Origin

From Sanskrit महासत्त्व (mahāsattva, “a great creature, great being”).

mahatma

Sanskrit

From Sanskrit mahatma, literally "great soul".

Mahdi

Arabic

From Arabic mahdiyy, "guided one".

mahdism

Origin

From Mahdi + -ism.

Mahendra

Sanskrit

From Sanskrit महेन्द्र (mahendra), combining महा (mahā, "great") with इन्द्र (Indra), the name of the storm god — so, roughly, "the great Indra."

Maher

Irish

An Anglicized shortening of Irish Ó Meachair, meaning roughly "descendant of the fine or majestic one."

Mahesh

Sanskrit

From Sanskrit mahesa, a title of the god Shiva.

mahi

Origin

Borrowed from the Maori word mahi, meaning "work".

mahjong

Origin

From Mandarin majiang, itself derived from a word meaning "sparrow" with a regional diminutive ending.

Mahmud

Arabic

From Arabic mahmud, "praised", from the same root as the name Muhammad.

mahogany

Portuguese

The word's exact origin is unclear — it may come from a Caribbean or Central American language, or from a Portuguese word of similarly uncertain origin.

mahon

Origin

Variant of Mahoney.

mahone

Middle French

From Middle French mahonne.

Mahoney

Irish

An Anglicized shortening of Irish Ó Mathghamhna, from elements meaning "bear" and "calf."

mahoosive

Origin

From massive; probably a blend of massive and a respelling of the letters hu in huge infixed in the former.

Mai

Japanese

Orthographic borrowing from the romanized form of Japanese マイ (mai), in turn a borrowing from English my, which it is treated as an alternate form of.