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 Old English stig, meaning an enclosure or pen (originally used for animals in general, later specifically pigs).

From stuff + the adjective-forming suffix -y, originally describing a room that felt "stuffed up" with stale air.

Borrowed from German, from a dialectal word meaning "vagabond" or "rascal."

A learned borrowing from Latin stringens, from stringere ("to draw tight"), the same root that gives us "strict" and "string."

From Latin strictus, past participle of stringere ("to draw tight, bind"). Related to "strain" and "stringent."

From Middle English, formed by adding the verb ending "-en" to "strength."

straightforward

From "straight" plus "forward."

From Old French estraier, tied to the idea of wandering off the main road ("strata"), and blended with an Old English word meaning to scatter.

The verb traces to Old French "estraindre" ("to bind tightly"), from Latin "stringere"; the "lineage/variety" noun sense comes from a separate Old English root meaning "gain" or "stock."

Old French · 1804

From Old French estout ("brave, proud"), from Frankish stolt, ultimately from a root meaning "bold, proud". The original sense was about courage; the meaning shifted to "thickset, fat" as a politer way of describing size, from around 1804.

Possibly a dialect variant related to "sting", suggesting a sharp, ungenerous nature.

Origin unclear; possibly named after the 19th-century English dentist Charles Stent, who developed a related dental material.

From Old English steap, "high, lofty," from a Germanic root meaning "to push or stick up."

From Old English steda, "stallion" — related to a Germanic root meaning "herd of horses."

Formed from stealthy + -ly.

From Old Norse steik, "roast" or "meat roasted on a stick."

From Old English stede, "place, position," from a Germanic root also seen in "steady" and "instead."

A back-formation from "staves," the old plural of "staff."

Borrowed from French statuette, a diminutive form of statue.

Formed as a back-formation from the plural noun statistics.

From Old English stearc ("stiff, strong, severe"), from a Germanic root meaning "rigid." The phrase "stark naked" actually began as a play on "start naked" (from Middle English stert, "tail"), later reshaped by influence of "stark" meaning "utterly."

From Old English steartlian, "to kick or struggle suddenly" — related to start in its older sense of jerking or flinching.

From an Old English word meaning "stiffness" or "strength," related to the word "stark." The food sense and the laundry sense both trace back to the same idea of something that makes things rigid.

From Old Norse stakra, meaning to push or totter.