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 Latin spīritus, "breath" or "spirit," from a root meaning "to blow or breathe" — related to words like inspire and respire.

From Old English "wyrm," which could mean both "worm" and "snake" — a distant cousin of "vermin."

Thought to be a softened form of a much cruder swear word.

From Medieval Latin opticus (“optic, optical”), from Ancient Greek ὀπτικός (optikós), equivalent to optic + -ics.

From Old English morþor ("secret killing"), from a Germanic root meaning "death, killing," related to Old Norse morð and German Mord.

From Old English weste land ("wasteland"), a combination of waste and land.

From Middle English poken, likely borrowed from a Middle Dutch or Low German word of imitative origin.

From Old French entier, from Latin integer, meaning "whole" or "untouched." A doublet of "integer."

From Old English þrǣd, related to an ancient root meaning "to twist" — the same root that gives us "throw."

The "sleep" sense comes from Middle Dutch/Low German "kip," originally meaning a bundle of animal hides — likely linked to cheap, crowded lodging houses called "kip-houses."

From Middle English crimpen, "to draw together or shrink," related to Dutch krimpen and ultimately the same root as "cramp."

From Old English bucca ("he-goat, stag"). The dollar sense comes from "buckskin," once used as a unit of trade among American frontier traders.

From Old English hæċ, an old Germanic word for a gate or half-door — related to modern "hedge" and the German word Heck.

From Old English dā, "female deer" — an ancient Germanic word related to a root meaning "to suckle."

From a Middle English word for a storage chest, later blended with a similar Old French word for "chest" — both ultimately from an old Germanic root for a box or hut.

Named after Eeyore, the perpetually sad, slow-moving donkey in A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories, whose name imitates a donkey's braying "hee-haw."

A noun formed from the phrasal verb fuck up.

A back-formation from "motherfucker".

The -ing form of fuck, used since the early 20th century as a general-purpose intensifier.

A back-formation from "motherfucker", used as an adjective/adverb intensifier.

From fuck plus the agent suffix -er.

From Latin aquarium, "watering place," from aqua, "water" — likely popularised in English by the naturalist Philip Henry Gosse, blending "aquatic" and "vivarium."

From Old Norse gæsling, combining "goose" with the diminutive ending "-ling," the same pattern seen in words like "duckling."

Old English · 1800

From Old English ċicen, the same root that gave us "chicken"; the "young woman" sense developed in slang around the mid-1800s.