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 know plus -ing.

From re-, "again," plus organization.

From Old English cnyllan, "to strike or knock," related to an old Germanic root meaning "to beat or push."

From Old English cnoll, "summit," related to a Germanic root meaning "lump."

From Latin remissio ("a sending back, a lessening"), from remittere ("to remit").

From knit plus -ing.

A shortening of "knickerbockers," itself from Diedrich Knickerbocker, a fictional Dutch-American character invented by the writer Washington Irving.

From Old English "cypera," referring to a male salmon after spawning, possibly linked to the reddish color of the fish at that stage.

Traces back through French and Italian to Ottoman Turkish "köşk," originally meaning a garden pavilion or palace, itself from Persian.

Formed from the letter i (used as a placeholder variable) plus the ordinal suffix -th, as in "fourth" or "fifth."

From Old English cyninglic, built from "king" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-ly."

From Middle English kyndenesse, formed from "kind" plus the noun-forming suffix "-ness."

From "kidnap" + the agent suffix "-er."

From "kid" (child) + slang "nap" (to snatch or grab). It began as 17th-century criminal slang for stealing children to sell as laborers in overseas colonies.

A compound of "key" and "hole" — literally the hole a key fits into.

Recorded from the late 1600s, likely an altered form of the older word welk ("to wither"), from Middle Dutch or Low German roots meaning "to become soft".

Formed from "hair" plus "do" — "do" here meaning a styling or arrangement, as in the informal phrase "do one's hair."

Likely a shortening of Middle English "wadmal", a coarse woollen cloth, tracing back to Old Norse words for "cloth" and "measure".

From Latin squalidus, "rough" or "dirty," from squalere, "to be filthy."

From Middle English disagre, via Anglo-Norman disagreer from Old French desagreer, "to be unpleasant" — built from dis- + agree.

From Middle English tidy, originally meaning "timely" or "seasonable," from "tide" (time) plus "-y." The meaning shifted over centuries from "in good time" to "neat and orderly."

From Old English samnian ("to gather, bring together"), from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "to gather" — related to the "same" family of words.

From Latin Samuēl, from Ancient Greek Σαμουήλ (Samouḗl), from Biblical Hebrew שְׁמוּאֵל (šəmûʾēl, literally “'God has set' or 'God has placed'”). Taken to mean a contraction of popular folk etymology שְׁאִלְתִּיו מֵאֵל (“I have asked/borrowed him from God”) (Modern: Šəʾīltīv mēʾĒl, Tiberian: Šĭʾīltīw mēʾĒl) by way of שָׁאוּל מֵאֵל (“asked/borrowed from God”) from 1 Samuel 1:20.

From proper + the adverb-forming suffix -ly.