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 "sketch" plus "-y," originally meaning rough and unfinished like a sketch.

A compound of "sketch" and "book."

From Dutch "schets," tracing back through Italian "schizzo" to Greek "skhedios," meaning "done off-hand" or "made suddenly."

From Middle English tracyng; equivalent to trace + -ing.

From Old French trace ("track, outline"), from the verb tracier, meaning to follow a path.

From French dépiction, ultimately from Latin depictio, related to "depict."

From Latin depictus, past participle of depingere ("to paint a picture of, portray").

From Old French discordant, from Latin discordare, "to disagree," from discors, "of different hearts."

From Latin discordia, built from dis- ("apart") plus cor, cordis ("heart") — literally "hearts apart."

From dis- + card.

From Old English dīċ, "trench" or "moat" — the same Germanic root that gave us dike (its doublet, referring to the raised bank rather than the trench).

Borrowed from Old French trenche, from trenchier, "to cut" — the same French root that gave English trench also produced trench coat and, distantly, truncate.

From Middle English guide, via Old French guider and Old Occitan guidar, ultimately from a Frankish word meaning "to show the way."

From Latin rivalis, literally "one who uses the same stream as another" — the idea being that neighbours sharing a water source naturally end up in competition.

From Old English bār, going back to an ancient West Germanic root for the animal.

From cattle + man.

From Old French treble, from Latin triplus — a doublet of "triple."

From French clairvoyant, from clair ("clear") + voyant ("seeing").

A 1950s bit of baby talk, probably a shortened, softened form of "doo-doo."

From Old English dung, an ancient Germanic word for excrement or manure.

From Old French cors, "body," from Latin corpus. The silent "p" was added later in English spelling to match the Latin original. A doublet of "corps" and "corpus".

From Latin miraculum ("object of wonder"), from mirus ("wonderful, astonishing").

From Middle French miraculeux, from the same root as "miracle."

Borrowed from Italian influenza, "influence," from Latin influentia — early epidemics were blamed on the "influence" of the stars. A doublet of influence.