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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Formed from telepathic plus the adverb ending -ally.

From French harassement, built from harass plus -ment.

From understand plus the suffix -able.

From evolution + -ary.

A blend of "Czecho-" (Czech) and "Slovakia."

From "hold" plus the agent suffix "-er," meaning "one who holds."

From evident + -ly.

From Late Latin Boiohaemum, combining the name of the Celtic Boii tribe with a Germanic word for "home."

From French bohémien, originally meaning "person from Bohemia," later applied to unconventional artists, partly due to a (mistaken) association with Romani travelers thought to have come through Bohemia.

From German spritzen, related to Yiddish shprits — the same root behind "spritzer".

From Middle English lumpe, from a Germanic root related to words for something loose or hanging — compare German Lumpen, "rag."

From pay + -ing.

From Latin attritio, "a rubbing against," from atterere, "to wear down" — built from ad- ("towards") and terere ("to rub").

From Galician Andrade.

From Latin amphora, from Greek amphoreus, "two-handled jar" — literally "carried on both sides".

From Latin regens, "ruling, governing," the present participle of regere, "to rule."

Coined in 1898 by physicist Arthur Schuster in a playful article about hypothetical matter that repels gravity, though the modern scientific meaning only took hold in the 1940s.

From Old Norse bikarr ("cup"), itself likely traceable back to a Late Latin word for a wine jug. It shares a root with "pitcher."

From "cosmopolite" (citizen of the world) plus -an, echoing words like "metropolitan."

From Old French ataindre, "to reach," from Latin attingere ("to touch, reach"), from ad- ("to") plus tangere ("to touch").

Borrowed directly from French encore, meaning "again" or "more."

Named after Thomas Derrick, a 17th-century English executioner whose hanging apparatus gave its name to the lifting frame.

From Middle English scarcely, scarsly, scarsely, scarsliche, scarseliche, equivalent to scarce + -ly.

From under- plus side.