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 Hebrew Yah, a short form of the Tetragrammaton, the sacred name of God.

From a Hebrew name עִירָא ('ira), from a word meaning "watchful".

Borrowing from Ido Ido. Began as a pseudonym, probably directly from Esperanto ido (“offspring”).

Officially from Greek ίσος (ísos, “equal”). However, a participant in the initial meetings disputes this etymology, claiming that the link to ίσος was decided on after the name ISO was set. (file format): From the file extension, in reference to the ISO 9660 specification.

Formed from an attempt to pronounce the acronym HMMWV, "High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle."

From Himalaya + -an.

The old form of "have" used with "thou" in Early Modern English, as found throughout Shakespeare and the King James Bible.

A medieval German short form of Johannes, the German equivalent of John.

Named after Edmund Gunter, a 17th-century English mathematician associated with related nautical and measuring instruments.

From Mandarin Guǎngzhōu, meaning roughly "expansive district."

From French gras ("fat"), originally a nickname for a stout person.

From Arabic غَرْنَاطَة (ḡarnāṭa), originally the name of a suburb later incorporated into the city. A doublet of Grenada.

From Russian Град (Grad, “codename for a type of multiple rocket launcher”), from Russian град (grad, “hail”).

Grew out of the social-media hashtag #goals, used to caption things worth aspiring to.

Borrowed from Italian Genovese, "of Genoa".

From Latin geminī, "twins," tracing the idea back through Greek and even older Near Eastern astronomy where the same stars were seen as divine twins.

Old French · 1900

From Old French gai ("joyful, lively"). The modern sense meaning "homosexual" developed in the 20th century from earlier slang use, becoming the dominant meaning of the word by the later 1900s.

As an Italian or Spanish surname, from a word meaning "rooster"; as a language name, from Breton gall, meaning "a Gaul or foreigner."

A shortened, informal form of Gabriel.

Trademarked in 1959 by Wham-O, the name traces back to the Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut — college students in the area threw the empty pie tins for fun long before the plastic toy existed.

From Old French Franceise, feminine form of Franceis, from Late Latin Franciscus (“Frankish”). Doublet of Francisca.

From Old English Finnas (“the Sami”) (plural), from Old Norse finnr (“a hunter-gatherer”), from Proto-Germanic *finnaz (which see for more). Possibly originally meaning a ‘finder’ of food, referring to nomadic hunter-gatherers, particularly the Sami.

Short for "forty-eighth," referring to a book cut from one forty-eighth of a full printer's sheet — the smallest standard sizing code.

Named after Johann Georg Faust, a real German alchemist and magician whose life inspired the legend.