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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Italian · 1700

Borrowed from Italian trio in the early 18th century.

From Latin fertilis, "fruitful," from ferre, "to bear or carry."

From Late Latin infertilis, "not fertile."

From Late Latin infertilitas, built on infertile.

From Latin fertilitas, from fertilis, "fruitful."

Origin uncertain, though possibly related to Old French gigue, "a fiddle."

From French batterie, "a beating," from Latin battuo, "to beat." Benjamin Franklin later borrowed the military "battery" (a row of guns) as the name for a connected row of electrical cells, and the name stuck.

From under plus water.

Borrowed directly from Spanish hola, meaning "hello."

From geology plus the agent suffix -ist.

From geo- ("earth") plus -logy ("study of"), ultimately from Greek roots.

From Greek ge ("earth") plus grapho ("to write"), via Latin geographia and French géographie.

From Latin intestinum, "internal," describing an organ located inside the body.

From Middle Dutch pegge ("pin, peg"), tracing back to a Proto-Germanic word for a pointed stick or stake.

From Old French sause, from Latin salsus, "salted" — sauces were originally valued as a way of adding salt and flavor to plain food.

From Old French sourse ("a rising, a spring"), from Latin surgere ("to rise") — the same root that gives us "surge."

From an earlier form "hicket," built from the imitative sound "hic" plus a diminutive ending — the word literally imitates the sound it describes.

From Latin diagonalis, from Greek diagonios ("from angle to angle"), from dia- ("across") + gonia ("angle").

From Old English "tācn" ("sign, symbol"), ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to show" or "to teach."

From Middle English receyt, via Anglo-Norman receite, ultimately from Latin receptus ("received"); a silent "p" was later added to match the Latin spelling.

From an old French word related to "stick" or "attach" — tickets were originally small notices affixed to something. It shares this root with "etiquette."

From Old French boiel, ultimately from Latin botellus, "little sausage" — the same root as botulism.

"Pea" is actually a back-formation: the older word "pease" (as in the nursery rhyme "pease pudding") was originally both singular and plural, but people mistook the "s" for a plural ending and invented a new singular, "pea".

From the first letter of "piss," used as a milder substitute — similar to how "eff" stands in for a stronger swear word.