English dictionary, thesaurus, translations & etymology
FreeDict.com
Login Flashcards

"W" Word Origins

Where do words come from? Trace the origin and history of any English word, from its Latin, Greek or Old English roots through to its modern meaning. Every etymology is sourced.

“W” Word Origins

Washburn
Origin
Variant of Washbourne.
washcloth
Origin
A straightforward compound of "wash" and "cloth."
washer
Middle English
From Middle English wasshere, formed from wash plus the agent suffix -er.
washhouse
Origin
From Old English wæsċhūs, equivalent to wash + house.
washing
Old English
From Old English wæsċing, built from wash plus the -ing suffix.
Washington
Old English
Named after George Washington, whose surname came from an English town, Washington in Tyne and Wear, itself from an Old English place name meaning roughly "the settlement of Hwæssa's people."
washout
Origin
Formed from the phrasal verb "wash out."
washrag
Origin
From wash + rag.
washroom
Origin
From wash + room, originally naming a room with sinks for washing up; now mostly used as a polite word for "toilet."
Wasim
Arabic
Ultimately from Arabic وَسِيم (wasīm, literally “handsome, graceful”).
wasp
Old English
From Old English wæps, from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "wasp," ultimately traced to a very old word for "weave" — a nod to the insect's woven-looking nests.
wass
Origin
From the Norman personal name Wazo.
wassail
Origin
From Middle English wassail, from Old Norse ves heill (“be healthy!”), from the imperative of vesa (“to be”) + heill (“healthy”). The earliest documented use of the term is from the first part of the 12th century CE, in Geoffroy of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (see page's citations).
wasserman
Origin
Borrowed from German Wassermann.
waste
Proto-Germanic
From Anglo-Norman waste, going back to a Frankish word for "a waste" or "empty land," from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "empty" or "desolate."
wastebasket
Origin
From waste + basket.
wastebin
Origin
From waste + bin.
wasteful
Middle English
From Middle English wastful, formed from waste plus -ful.
wasteland
Old English
From Old English weste land ("wasteland"), a combination of waste and land.
waster
Origin
From Middle English wastere, waister, wastar, wastour, equivalent to waste + -er. Compare Anglo-Norman wastur, Old French gastëor.
wastey
Origin
From waste + -y.
wastoid
Origin
From waste + -oid. Compare waster (“idler”), wasted (“in a drugged state”).
wastrel
Origin · 1800
A 19th-century coinage combining waste with the pejorative suffix -rel, as in "scoundrel."
wat
Origin
The "temple" sense is borrowed from Thai วัด (wát).
Watanabe
Japanese
Borrowed from Japanese 渡辺 (Watanabe) or 渡部 (Watanabe).
Watari
Japanese
Borrowed from Japanese 亘理 (Watari).
watch
Old English
From Old English wæċċe, related to the verb "wake" — originally referring to staying awake and alert.
watchband
Origin
From watch + band.
watchdog
Origin
From watch + dog.
watcher
Middle English
From Middle English wacchere, formed from watch plus -er.
Watchers
Origin
Translation of Acœmitæ; See watcher.
watchful
Middle English
From Middle English waccheful, formed from watch plus -ful.
watchmaker
Origin
From watch + maker.
watchmaking
Origin
From watch + making.
watchman
Middle English
From Middle English waccheman, formed from watch plus man.
watchtower
Origin
From watch + tower.
watchword
Origin
From Middle English wacche word, wacchworde, morphologically as watch (“guard, sentinel, sentry”) + word.
Water
Old English
From Old English wæter, from a Proto-Germanic root going back to a very old Proto-Indo-European word for "wet" or "water" — the same root that gives us "wash" and "otter."
waterbed
Origin
From water + bed.
waterbuck
Origin
From Afrikaans waterbok, after the animal's habit of escaping to waterways.
watercourse
Origin
From Middle English water course; equivalent to water + course.
watercraft
Origin
From water + -craft (vehicle) or water + -craft (skill).
watered
Old English
From Old English wæterod, formed from water plus the -ed suffix.
waterfall
Old English
From Old English wæterġefeall, formed from water plus fall.
Waterford
Old Norse
From water + ford. In the case of the city in Ireland, this is a modification through folk etymology of Old Norse Veðrafjǫrðr (literally “wether ford”). The civil parish in New Brunswick may have been named after Waterford, Ireland.
waterfowl
Origin
From Middle English waterfoul, water-foul, equivalent to water + fowl. Compare Old English dopfugel (“waterfowl, moorhen”, literally “dipping-fowl”).
waterfront
Origin
A straightforward compound of "water" and "front" — literally the front edge of the land where it meets the water.
Watergate
Origin · 1972
From the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., site of the 1972 break-in that triggered the scandal ending in President Nixon's resignation; the hotel itself was named after a spot on the Potomac once used for concerts.