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 French similaire, based on Latin similis, "like, resembling."

From Latin inēvītābilis, "unavoidable" — in- + ēvītāre, "to avoid," from ē- ("out") + vītāre ("to shun").

From Greek idiotes, originally meaning an ordinary private citizen with no special skill or office, later narrowing to mean an ignorant or foolish person.

From French corps, "body," from Latin corpus. A doublet of "corpse" and "corpus" — all three trace to the same Latin word.

From Old French corporal, from Latin corporalis, "of the body" — from corpus, "body". The military rank likely developed via Italian caporale, "head of a squad," which got reshaped in English to look like the "body" word.

A shortening of the Latin prefix semi-, "half," used on its own as a noun.

From Latin per, meaning "through" or "by means of" — the same root that gives us "percent" (per + centum, "by the hundred").

From Latin trimestris ("of three months"), from tres ("three") and mensis ("month").

From German Semester, from Latin sēmestris, "lasting six months," combining sex ("six") and mensis ("month").

From Latin semifinalis, combining semi- ("half") with final.

From Old French final, ultimately from Latin finis, meaning "end."

Old Norse · 1600

First recorded in the late 1600s; possibly a back-formation from "hazy," itself linked to an Old Norse word for grey.

A blend of "smoke" and "fog."

From the pronunciation of Burmese ရန်ကုန် (rankun) in the Rakhine dialect.

From the Middle English phrase "jobbe of work" (a piece of work); ultimate origin uncertain.

From Old English aemtig, "vacant, unoccupied, at leisure," ultimately from a root meaning "without obligation."

From Old French replier, from Latin replicare ("to fold back"), which in medieval usage came to mean "to answer" — the same root as "replicate" and "replica."

A phonetic respelling of "draught," from Old English dreaht, related to "draw."

From Old English þorn, going back to a very old Germanic word for a sharp spike, related to a root meaning "stiff."

From Old English tord, meaning "dung" or "filth," going back to a Proto-Germanic root for manure.

Origin uncertain — first recorded in 1951 as US student slang. The word appeared a year earlier in Dr. Seuss's If I Ran the Zoo as the name of a fictional creature, which may have helped popularize it.

From Old French desert, from Latin desertum, "an abandoned place," from deserere, "to abandon." Not related to "dessert" (the sweet course), despite the shared spelling root.

The letter name follows the pattern of other English letter names, combining an "eh" sound with the letter itself.

From German Statistik, originally coined by Gottfried Achenwall in 1749 to describe the systematic study of facts about a state.