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 append + the suffix -age, ultimately from Latin appendere, "to hang something onto."

Via Middle French periphérie, from Greek peripherēs ("carried around").

From Latin congenitus ("born together with"), from con- + genitus, past participle of gignere ("to beget").

First recorded in the early twentieth century, alongside the modern sense of "addiction," which had earlier been used mainly of opium.

Borrowed directly from Spanish diablo, "devil," which itself descends from Latin diabolus.

From un- ("not") plus readable.

From Latin "lucifer," literally "light-bearer," from "lux" (light) and "fero" (to carry). Its use as a name for Satan comes from a passage in Isaiah traditionally read as referring to a fallen angel.

Shortened from "tawdry lace," originally "Saint Audrey's lace" — cheap necklaces sold to pilgrims at fairs honouring the English saint; once the fashion faded, the word came to mean "cheap and gaudy."

From Greek platypous, "flat-footed" — platys, "flat," plus pous, "foot."

From Japanese karaoke, a blend of kara ("empty") and oke, a shortened form of okesutora ("orchestra") — literally an "empty orchestra" backing track with no vocals.

Likely an imitative sound related to hush, similar to the Scots whisht.

Natural exclamation; first recorded mid-16th century. Perhaps an unstressed variant of aye (“yes, yeah”). The Philippine sense is possibly influenced by Tagalog e and/or Spanish eh.

A natural exclamation rather than a word with a traced history.

From Middle English partener, altered (under the influence of "part") from an earlier form parcener, ultimately traced back to Latin partitio, "a dividing into parts."

From an old English name for Genoa, Italy, where a similar coarse cotton cloth was originally produced.

An archaic variant of Joan, from Old French Johan, from Latin Johanna. Cf. John.

Borrowed from French cirque, from Latin circus ("circle, ring") — a doublet of the English word "circus".

Borrowed via New Latin catharticus from Greek kathartikos, "cleansing" — the same root as catharsis.

From Old French/Anglo-Norman reisin ("grape"), from Latin racemus — the same root that gives English "raceme".

From Greek hepatikos, "of the liver", from hepar ("liver").

From the Choctaw words okla ("people") and homa ("red"), together meaning roughly "red people".

Borrowed into Singlish from Malay sial, an exclamation of dismay or bad luck.

Named after Maxwell's demon, a thought experiment in physics — the popular idea that it stands for "disk and execution monitor" is a later, invented backronym.

From Latin prōvidēre, "to foresee, act with foresight" — the same root that gives us "provident" and "providence."