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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From Latin palpare, "to touch softly, feel" — the same root that gives us "palpable" and "palpitate."

The bean sense traces through Hindi mūṅg from Sanskrit mudga; the "corrupt data" sense arose separately in computing slang.

Borrowed from Spanish quesadilla, a diminutive built from queso, "cheese."

From mitochondria plus the adjective-forming suffix -al.

From Old French traïson, ultimately from Latin trādō, "to hand over or betray" — the same root as "tradition" and "betray."

From warm plus the -ing suffix.

From "climate" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-ic."

Borrowed from Latin "transfusio," from "transfundere" ("to pour across").

From Middle English curd, an altered form of "crud" — both ultimately mean a coagulated substance.

Both senses honour real people named Morgan — the genetics unit after biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan, and the horse breed after its original owner, Justin Morgan.

From Old French sable, ultimately from a Slavic word for the animal, borrowed through Medieval Latin and Middle Low German as the fur trade carried the word westward.

From sully + -ied (suffix forming participial adjectives and past participal forms of verbs ending in -y).

From an old Spanish spelling of desesperado, "desperate," ultimately from Latin desperare, "to despair." A doublet of "desperate."

From Old English stedefæst, literally "fixed in place" — a compound of stead ("place") and fast ("firm").

From up + keep.

By surface analysis, trifle + -ing.

A blend of brain and maniac, popularized by the name of a supervillain in the Superman comics from 1958.

From Middle English baddenes, formed from bad plus the noun-forming suffix -ness.

Borrowed as a stand-alone word from the prefix "meta-" (from Greek meta, "beyond, after, with"), used in words like metaphysics and metadata.

Borrowed from Sanskrit mata ("mother"), a relative of the English word mother and Latin mater.

From Japanese kan, a traditional unit of weight.

From Latin vivus, "living" — related to vivid.

From cryo- (Greek for "cold" or "frost") plus -genic ("producing").

From Latin transversus, "turned across," a doublet of "transversal."