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 Late Latin alleviare, "to lighten," built from levis, meaning "light" (as in not heavy) — the same root that gives us "levity" and "elevate."

From vulnerable plus the noun suffix -ity.

From Latin submittere, "to place under, yield" — from sub- ("under") plus mitto ("to send").

From Latin cholera, from Greek kholera — a doublet of the word "choler," historically linked to bile-related illness.

From Marx plus the suffix "-ist", meaning "a follower of."

From voluntary + the adverb-forming suffix -ly.

From French bourgeoisie, from bourgeois, "town dweller."

From Medieval Latin volitio, "will," from Latin volo, "I wish" — related to "voluntary" and "volunteer."

From vital + -ity, via Latin vitalitas, "vital force."

From visual + -ize, "to make or do the thing described by the adjective."

Borrowed from Italian vista, "view, sight," from vedere, "to see" — related to vision and video.

From Middle English visiter/visitour, from Old French visitëor, ultimately from Latin visitare, "to go see repeatedly" — built on the same root as visit.

From Anglo-Norman viscounte, from Medieval Latin vicecomes, literally "vice-count" — built from vice- and count.

From Latin timidus, "full of fear", from timeo, "to fear".

From Latin vīnum ("wine") + the chemical suffix -yl, because the vinyl group is chemically related to ordinary (ethyl) alcohol found in wine.

From Latin humiliāre ("to abase, make humble"), from humilis ("low, humble") — the same root as humble.

From Middle English huschen ("to hush"), related to similar hushing words in Low German and Danish.

From Greek hypokritikos, related to hypokritēs ("actor, hypocrite").

From Old French faulcon hagard ("wild falcon"), originally describing an untamed hawk caught as an adult; the modern sense of "looking exhausted" developed later.

Possibly from an older word "joll," meaning to knock or strike, with a suffix added for repeated action.

From Early Modern English "bump" meaning a blow from a collision, likely of North Germanic origin and imitative in nature — related to "bum" and "bumble."

From "rise" plus "-ing," the ordinary way English turns a verb into a noun or adjective describing the action.

Formed from the state name California plus the adjective-forming suffix -an, the same pattern as "American" or "Canadian."

From French fracas, from Italian fracassare ("to shatter, smash to pieces").