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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Borrowed from Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese padre ("priest" or "father"), from Latin pater ("father").

From Old French "pas," from Latin "passus" ("step, stride") — the same root that gives us "pass" and "passage."

Formed from some + where.

From Old English nōhwǣr, a fusion of "no" and "where."

From Middle English, from ever + where.

From Middle English every thing, later fused into one word.

From "novel" + the suffix "-ist," meaning "one who does."

From Old French novel, "new," ultimately from Latin novus. The adjective and the fiction genre share this same root — both are about something "new."

From Old English wundor, meaning "wonder" or "miracle" — a very old Germanic word found across related languages like Dutch and German (Wunder).

From Old French enchanter, from Latin incantare ("to chant a magic formula over"); a doublet of "incant."

From Middle English lovere, luffer, lufere, equivalent to love + -er.

From game + the agent suffix -er; the word predates video games by centuries but is now most associated with them.

From Old English cæppe ("hood, head-covering"), itself borrowed from Late Latin cappa. The same root eventually gave English "cape," "cope," and "chapel."

From Latin complementum, "that which fills up or completes."

Traced back to 1550s nautical English "ternado," itself from Spanish tronada ("thunderstorm"), from tronar ("to thunder"), ultimately from Latin tonare. The letters got swapped around (a process called metathesis) under the influence of the similar Spanish word tornar, "to turn."

From Latin colonia ("settlement, farm"), from colonus ("farmer, settler"), from colere, "to till or cultivate."

From Middle English crosbowe, formed from "cross" plus "bow," describing the bow's crosswise mounting.

From French Belgrade, from Medieval Latin Belgradum and Belogradum, ultimately from South Slavic forms of Proto-Slavic *bělъ (“white”) and *gȏrdъ (“fortress, city”), after the white walls of its medieval fortress. Doublet of Beograd, Berat, and Belgorod.

From "debauch" + the noun-forming suffix "-ery," first recorded around 1642.

A written spelling of the relaxed pronunciation of "hell of a".

From Middle English wantoun, built from wan- ("un-") plus a word meaning "trained" or "disciplined" — literally "undisciplined."

From Old English medu, going back to a very old Indo-European word for honey or honey-wine — the same root that gives us "methyl" through Greek méthu.

From honey + moon; originally suggesting that affection, like the moon, wanes over time, though the word later came to mean the sweet first month of marriage.

From Latin consummatus, past participle of consummare, "to sum up, complete," from con- ("together") + summa ("a sum, total").