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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A straightforward combination of "work" and "load."

From Latin ambiens, "going around", from ambire, "to go around".

From the older word fidge ("to fidget"), with the frequentative ending -et added.

A compound of nurse and maid.

A compound of nut (in the sense of "crazy person") and case, as in "headcase".

From Old English ofer niht ("through the night"), built from over + night; the verb use is a later development, possibly echoing German übernachten.

Coined in the 1890s in Massachusetts from volley + ball, after an observer noticed the "volleying" back-and-forth nature of the newly invented game (originally called Mintonette).

From night + shirt.

From Middle English nightmare, from night plus mare, an old word for an evil spirit believed to sit on a sleeper's chest and cause suffocating dreams — not related to the horse sense of "mare."

From Old English nihtlic, from night plus the adjective-forming suffix -ly.

From night + the diminutive suffix -ie.

From Medieval Latin supervisus, from super- ("over") + videre ("to see") — literally "to oversee." A doublet of survey.

Built from over- + sight, so it literally covers both "watching over" and "looking past" something — hence its two opposite-feeling meanings.

Borrowed from Mandarin 孔 (kǒng) or Cantonese 江 (gong1).

From several unrelated sources: Anglo-Norman roy ("king," from Latin rex); Scottish Gaelic ruadh ("red-haired"); and an anglicization of the Bengali surname রায় (ray).

From a Norman place name, possibly Brix in France, brought to Scotland by the Bruce family in the Middle Ages.

From fervent + -ly.

From user + name.

From Old English sprǣċlēas, built from "speech" plus "-less" ("without").

From sure + -ly.

Named after the French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who proposed its use for executions in the late 18th century.

From Old French trotter, from Frankish trottōn, ultimately from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "to tread" — a doublet of "tread."

From Middle English excitement, from Old French excitement, equivalent to excite + -ment.

From Old English clyster, related to Germanic words meaning to clump or lump together; probably a close relative of the word clot.