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 mis- ("wrongly") plus step.

From Middle French portraict, based on portraire ("to portray"), from Latin protrahere.

From Latin cursorius, "hasty, of running," from currere, "to run" — the same root as "curriculum" and "current."

A compound of blind and side, originally describing the unseen side of a moving vehicle before it took on its figurative "catch someone off guard" sense.

From Middle English hedi, formed from head plus the adjective suffix -y, originally meaning something that "goes to your head."

From spine + -y.

From stuff + the past-tense/adjective suffix -ed.

Formed from statistic plus the adjective ending -al.

From Old French flaterie, from the verb flater ("to flatter").

From Middle English humorous, built on humor + -ous.

From Middle English cravant, from Old French cravanté, "defeated" — the word originally meant someone who had been beaten, and later came to describe someone too cowardly to fight at all.

From "sweeten" plus the "-er" ending.

From super- + hero, first recorded around 1917, though the genre exploded with comic books from the 1930s onward.

From Anglo-Norman contreroulour, from Medieval Latin contrarotulator — a doublet of comptroller, and formed from control plus -er.

A spelling variant of "controller," reshaped in late Middle English through a mistaken association with the French word compte, "account." The two spellings were once pronounced identically.

From Latin sonus, "sound," plus the combining form -gram, "something written or recorded."

From Italian sonetto, "little song," via Old Occitan sonet — ultimately from Latin sonus, "sound."

From Middle English sothsaier, literally "truth-sayer" — from sooth ("truth") + sayer, since such figures claimed to speak truths about what was to come.

A marketing name of uncertain origin, possibly echoing words like "vigour," "virility," and "Niagara."

From Old French rascaille, "rabble" or "outcasts" — possibly connected to a word meaning "scrapings" or "dregs."

From Middle English tellere, "one who counts or recounts" — tell plus the agent ending -er.

From a Middle English word for a whisper or hint, likely tangled up over time with inkle, "to hint."

From "tree" + "house," first recorded around 1867.

From legislate plus the adjective-forming suffix -ive, ultimately from Latin legis lator, "proposer of a law".