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 Middle English cogge, probably from Old Norse, related to a word for a lump or swelling — the sense of "gear tooth" likely comes from the tooth's rounded shape.

Borrowed via Spanish from Quechua kuka.

From Old English clott, "lump" — a distant relative of "clod" and "klutz."

From Middle English clad, an old past-tense/participle form of "clothen" (to clothe).

From Old French citer, from Latin citare ("to summon, to call"), a frequentative of ciere ("to rouse, to call").

Imitative of the sound made by a labouring steam engine.

Middle English · 1500

From Middle English chubbe, the name of the river fish, later used from the 1500s as a nickname for a slow or lazy person, and eventually for anything short and thick.

From Middle English chokke, related to Old French terms for a block or log; a doublet of the word "stock."

From Middle English chitte, meaning a young animal or cub, from a Germanic root for young offspring.

Borrowed from French chic ("elegant"), which most likely comes from German Schick, meaning a tasteful, polished appearance.

The noun is probably derived from the title of The Ballad of Chevy Chase, first published in The Complaynt of Scotland (1549); the ballad is about a hunt taking place on a chase (“large country estate where game may be hunted”) in the Cheviot Hills between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders, and is thought to allude to the Battle of Otterburn in 1388. The verb is derived from the noun.

From earlier "carde", reshaped under the influence of "cardoon", ultimately from Latin carduus ("thistle").

Borrowed directly from Latin cervix, meaning "neck".

From Arabic qasaba, referring to a fortress or citadel at the centre of an old town.

From Old Norse karl ("man, husband"), a doublet of the English word "churl."

Shortened from Italian capotasto ("head of fingerboard"); the crime-family sense comes from Italian capo ("head, boss").

From Italian canto, "song." A doublet of "chant."

Recorded since the 1500s, from Dutch kam ("cog, comb") — a doublet of the English word "comb."

An American colloquial term of unclear origin, first recorded in the early 1900s. Some suggest a link to the wary, closed-off behavior of a caged animal, but this is only a guess.

An altered form of "catty," a unit of weight used in Southeast Asia, borrowed from Malay kati.

From French cache ("hiding place"), a word used by French-Canadian trappers for a hidden store of supplies, from the verb cacher ("to hide").

Borrowed from Spanish cabaña and Portuguese cabana, both from Late Latin capanna — a doublet of cabin.

Built from but- (a prefix indicating four carbon atoms, from the same root as "butter") plus the chemistry suffix -ane used for alkanes.

From Middle English bunter, bonter (“sifter”).