English dictionary, thesaurus, translations & etymology

Etymology — The origins of English words

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.

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Borrowed from Latin recusatio, recusationis. Compare French récusation.

From pulp + -y.

From puss + -ums.

From purification + -al.

Learned borrowing from New Latin quadrilaterus + -al.

From reprehensive + -ly.

From pseudo- + moral.

promiscuousness

From promiscuous + -ness.

From property + -ed.

From purify + -er.

From Anglo-Norman recapitulaciun et al., Middle French recapitulacion et al., or their source, from Late Latin recapitulatio (“summing up, summary”), from the participle stem of recapitulare (“recapitulate”), from re- + capitulum (“chapter, section”), diminutive of caput (“head”).

From psycho- + -pathy.

From Latin, from Ancient Greek πρό (pró, “before”) + φύλαξις (phúlaxis, “a watching, guarding”).

Borrowed from Latin regressīvus, equivalent to regress + -ive.

Present participle of the obsolete verb raven (“to prey”).

From refinish + -er.

Borrowed from Yiddish פּששש (pshshsh).

From Middle French pubescent, from Latin pubescens (“to become hairy, downy, or an adult”).

French, in sense of “group of knights”, from Spanish cuadrilla, diminutive of cuadra (“square”) (compare also cuadra (“four”)), from Latin quadra.

From queer + -hood.

Coined by English neurophysiologist Charles Sherrington in 1906, originally in the spelling proprio-ceptive, from proprius + clipped receptive.

From Late Latin quīnquangulum, use as noun of neuter of quīnquangulus (“pentagonal”). By surface analysis, quinqu- + -angle.